All-Time Top Twenty Tigers Hitters by WAR

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