Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Trammell Leads Tigers Shortstops in WAR

Today, we'll continue the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) series using Sean Smith's WAR database to rank Tigers shortstops. Other parts of the series including an explanation of WAR can be found in theWAR folder.

Table 1 shows that Alan Trammell is the all-time Tigers leader at shortstop with 66.9 WAR. He is followed by Donie Bush (36.7 WAR from 1908-1921) and Billy Rogell (24.4 WAR from 1930-1939). Current Tiger Carlos Guillen, who has played more games at shortstop than any other position, is fifth (18.7).

Table 2 tells us that Trammell also leads in WAR/600 plate appearances (WAR600) with 4.37. Some readers may not have heard of the second man on the list. Kid Elberfeld (4.10 WAR600) was one of the original Tigers playing 286 games from 1901-1903. Elberfeld played for six different teams over 14 years from 1898-1911 and posted an OPS+ of 105 in 1,292 games.


Table 1: Tigers Top Ten Shortstops by WAR

Player

PA

WAR

Alan Trammell

9,175

66.9

Donie Bush

8.124

36.7

Billy Rogell

5,025

24.4

Harvey Kuenn

4,702

19.3

Carlos Guillen

2,936

18.7

Topper Rigney

1,901

9.2

Kid Elberfeld

1,198

8.2

Johnny Lipon

2,580

5.1

Deivi Cruz

2,489

4.0

Eddie Lake

1,981

3.6



Table 2: Tigers Top Five Shortstops by WAR per 600 PA


Player

PA

WAR600

Alan Trammell

9,175

4.37

Kid Elberfeld

1,198

4.10

Carlos Guillen

2,936

3.82

Topper Rigney

1,901

2.90

Donie Bush

8,124

2.71

1 comment:

  1. How sad is the history of Tiger shortstops in their 109 year history that Deivi Cruz makes the top 10.

    ReplyDelete

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