Earlier in the week, I listed the all-time top seven Tigers hitters by the WAR statistic. However, that also included playing time with other teams which confused a couple of readers. So, I purchased Sean Smith's WAR database and pulled player statistics only for their time with the Tigers. The top 20 are included in Table 1.
There are no surprises at the top of the list with Ty Cobb way out in front followed by Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Harry Heilmann and Sam Crawford. The biggest surprise on the list for some readers may be 12th ranked Donie Bush who played mostly shortstop for the Tigers from 1908-1923. He wasn't a great hitter, just 15 runs above average lifetime. He was also 39 fielding runs below average according to the adjusted range factor statistic used prior to 1956. He made the list largely because he was a shortstop (119 position runs) who played for a long time (261 replacement runs).
I'll be doing a lot more with this database for the Tigers and other teams throughout the off-season.
Table 1: Top Twenty Tigers Position Players by WAR
| Rank | Player | WAR |
| 1 | Ty Cobb | 153.7 |
| 2 | Al Kaline | 91.0 |
| 3 | Charlie Gehringer | 80.9 |
| 4 | Lou Whitaker | 69.7 |
| 5 | Alan Trammell | 66.9 |
| 6 | Harry Heilmann | 65.7 |
| 7 | Sam Crawford | 64.8 |
| 8 | Hank Greenberg | 53.7 |
| 9 | Norm Cash | 52.5 |
| 10 | Bill Freehan | 43.3 |
| 11 | Bobby Veach | 42.2 |
| 12 | Donie Bush | 36.7 |
| 13 | Dick McAuliffe | 35.3 |
| 14 | Chet Lemon | 27.6 |
| 15 | Lance Parrish | 27.5 |
| 16 | Rudy York | 26.6 |
| 17 | Travis Fryman | 26.5 |
| 18 | Kirk Gibson | 25.6 |
| 19 | Willie Horton | 25.0 |
| 20 | Tony Phillips | 24.6 |
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