First, remember that WAR is an estimate of the number of wins a player contributed to his team's win total above what you would expect from a replacement level player - a player who could be acquired for league minimum salary. An example of a replacement player would be a player in Triple-A, who is good enough to get some time in the majors, but is not regarded as a top prospect. WAR takes into consideration everything a player does on the field, including hitting, fielding and base running.
I use the WAR system developed by Sean Smith, now a statistician for a major league team. Most of my analysis uses a database purchased from Sean a couple of years ago. The data are now housed at Baseball-Reference. There may be a few small discrepancies between the old database numbers I'm using and Baseball-Reference due to recent upgrades of the system, but nothing that should significantly change the conclusions. A very accessible explanation of the system can be found at Beyond The Boxscore.
Basically, what I did was sum the WARs for the four most commonly used infielders for each team each year (one each at first base, second base, third base and shortstop). I required that each infielder had 400 or more plate appearances and had played at least half of his games at his primary position. This guaranteed that each qualifying infield would have four regulars. For example, an infield with a star first baseman, second baseman and shortstop and group of part-time players sharing the third base spot would not qualify.
The 15 top single season WAR totals in the history of the Tigers are shown in Table 1 below. The table is dominated by two groups. The first group is the Tigers infield of the 1930s featuring Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg and Charlie Gehringer at first and second, Marv Owen at third and Billy Rogell at shortstop. This "Battalion of Death", as dubbed by Free Press baseball writer Charles Ward, took three of the top four spots on the list in 1934, 1935 and 1937. The 25.0 WAR they produced in 1934 was the most ever by a Tigers infield and fifth highest in the history of baseball.
The other main theme of the table is three decades of Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell at second and short. As rookies in 1978, this duo combined with first baseman Jason Thompson and third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez to produce 11.3 WAR. In 1986, they teamed with first baseman Darrell Evans and third baseman Darnell Coles for 14.5 WAR. The same group with Tom Brookens inserted for Darnell Coles finished with 16.7 WAR in 1987. Finally, the historic keystone joined first baseman Cecil Fielder and third baseman Tony Phillips in 1990 to generate 21.4 WAR, the third highest Tigers total ever.
Younger fans will surely notice the fifth row of the table. The infield of Chris Shelton, Placido Polanco, Brandon Inge and Carlos Guillen helped lead the Tigers to the American League pennant in 2006.
Table 1: Best Tigers Infields According to Baseball-Reference WAR
Team | first baseman | WAR | second baseman | WAR | third baseman | WAR | shortstop | WAR | Total WAR | |
1934 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 6.7 | Charlie Gehringer | 9.5 | Marv Owen | 3.5 | Billy Rogell | 5.3 | 25.0 |
1935 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 8.3 | Charlie Gehringer | 8.4 | Marv Owen | 0.3 | Billy Rogell | 5.4 | 22.4 |
1990 | DET | Cecil Fielder | 6.7 | Lou Whitaker | 3.5 | Tony Phillips | 4.4 | Alan Trammell | 6.8 | 21.4 |
1937 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 7.8 | Charlie Gehringer | 7.6 | Marv Owen | 1.1 | Billy Rogell | 2.7 | 19.2 |
2006 | DET | Chris Shelton | 1.6 | Placido Polanco | 3.1 | Brandon Inge | 5.8 | Carlos Guillen | 6.7 | 17.2 |
1987 | DET | Darrell Evans | 4.9 | Lou Whitaker | 3.3 | Tom Brookens | 0.1 | Alan Trammell | 8.4 | 16.7 |
1991 | DET | Cecil Fielder | 3.4 | Lou Whitaker | 6.9 | Travis Fryman | 3.1 | Alan Trammell | 3.0 | 16.4 |
1986 | DET | Darrell Evans | 2.9 | Lou Whitaker | 3.9 | Darnell Coles | 1.8 | Alan Trammell | 5.9 | 14.5 |
1933 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 2.1 | Charlie Gehringer | 6.7 | Marv Owen | -0.2 | Billy Rogell | 4.7 | 13.3 |
1965 | DET | Norm Cash | 5.3 | Jerry Lumpe | 1.6 | Don Wert | 2.9 | Dick McAuliffe | 2.7 | 12.5 |
1967 | DET | Norm Cash | 3.9 | Dick McAuliffe | 4.8 | Don Wert | 2.1 | Ray Oyler | 1.6 | 12.4 |
1961 | DET | Norm Cash | 10.0 | Jake Wood | 0.4 | Steve Boros | 1.7 | Chico Fernandez | 0.1 | 12.2 |
1978 | DET | Jason Thompson | 4.7 | Lou Whitaker | 3.1 | Aurelio Rodriguez | 1.3 | Alan Trammell | 2.2 | 11.3 |
1914 | DET | George Burns | 2.5 | Marty Kavanagh | 0.7 | George Moriarty | 3.4 | Donie Bush | 4.6 | 11.2 |
2007 | DET | Sean Casey | 0.5 | Placido Polanco | 5.0 | Brandon Inge | 2.5 | Carlos Guillen | 3.1 | 11.1 |
One criticism of WAR is that the fielding portion of the system is not that reliable if we are only looking at one year of data. It is even more shaky in very early years where less detailed data are available. Thus, I also wanted to construct a list with fielding excluded. The Offensive WAR (oWAR) results are shown in Table 2. The same names dominate this list.
Table 2: Best Tigers Infields According to Baseball-Reference oWAR
Year | Team | first baseman | OWAR | second baseman | OWAR | third baseman | OWAR | shortstop | OWAR | Total OWAR |
1934 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 6.4 | Charlie Gehringer | 8.4 | Marv Owen | 4.1 | Billy Rogell | 4.0 | 23.0 |
1935 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 7.8 | Charlie Gehringer | 7.0 | Marv Owen | 0.6 | Billy Rogell | 3.5 | 19.0 |
1937 | DET | Hank Greenberg | 7.6 | Charlie Gehringer | 7.0 | Marv Owen | 0.7 | Billy Rogell | 2.7 | 18.0 |
1990 | DET | Cecil Fielder | 6.6 | Lou Whitaker | 2.5 | Tony Phillips | 3.1 | Alan Trammell | 5.7 | 17.8 |
1987 | DET | Darrell Evans | 3.7 | Lou Whitaker | 3.4 | Tom Brookens | 0.0 | Alan Trammell | 8.4 | 15.5 |
1991 | DET | Cecil Fielder | 3.6 | Lou Whitaker | 5.8 | Travis Fryman | 2.7 | Alan Trammell | 2.1 | 14.2 |
1961 | DET | Norm Cash | 9.1 | Jake Wood | 1.2 | Steve Boros | 2.2 | Chico Fernandez | -0.1 | 12.5 |
1986 | DET | Darrell Evans | 1.6 | Lou Whitaker | 2.9 | Darnell Coles | 2.3 | Alan Trammell | 5.1 | 11.9 |
1965 | DET | Norm Cash | 4.1 | Jerry Lumpe | 1.9 | Don Wert | 2.0 | Dick McAuliffe | 3.5 | 11.5 |
2006 | DET | Chris Shelton | 1.1 | Placido Polanco | 1.1 | Brandon Inge | 2.7 | Carlos Guillen | 6.4 | 11.3 |
1966 | DET | Norm Cash | 3.7 | Jerry Lumpe | -0.1 | Don Wert | 2.0 | Dick McAuliffe | 5.6 | 11.1 |
1910 | DET | Tom Jones | 0.8 | Jim Delahanty | 3.5 | George Moriarty | 1.9 | Donie Bush | 4.7 | 10.8 |
1997 | DET | Tony Clark | 4.0 | Damion Easley | 4.2 | Travis Fryman | 2.9 | Deivi Cruz | -0.3 | 10.8 |
2007 | DET | Sean Casey | 0.8 | Placido Polanco | 5.0 | Brandon Inge | 0.7 | Carlos Guillen | 4.1 | 10.6 |
2008 | DET | Miguel Cabrera | 3.3 | Placido Polanco | 2.7 | Carlos Guillen | 3.0 | Edgar Renteria | 1.5 | 10.5 |
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