Bryce Harper is thus far the only player born in 1992 to reach the majors. His current Wins Above Replacement (WAR) (Baseball-reference version) career total of 1.4 is thus tops by default so far for his birth year.
Five players born in 1991 have reached the majors, but Mike Trout is the only one with positive WAR. At 4.8 career WAR with half a season still to play, Trout is on pace to have one of the great very-young-career starts ever, according to b-ref’s WAR. The only MLB hitters in history to reach more than 6.5 career WAR through the end of his age 20 season have been Ott, Cobb, Kaline, A-Rod, Mantle, Junior Griffey and Ted Williams.
Among players born in 1990, b-ref has Brett Lawrie as the career WAR leader with 8.3 WAR, ahead of Starlin Castro at 7.2. Fangraphs, however, has Castro ahead with 7.6 to Lawrie’s 5.5. Averaging b-ref and fangraphs puts Castro ahead 7.4 to 6.9.
More year-of-birth WAR leaders after the jump. Continue reading →