2013 WAR-Stars, NL Everyday Players |

The NL roster for the All-Star Game currently consists of 20 everyday players and 13 pitchers.

Going purely on total 2013 Wins Above Replacement (Baseball-reference version) for everyday players, 13 of those 20 everyday players are also in the top 20 in WAR among NL everday players this season: Molina and Posey at catcher, Goldschmidt and Votto at first, Matt Carpenter at second, Wright at third, Tulowitzki, Cabrera and Segura at short, and in the outfield the Carloses Gomez and Gonzalez, Domonic Brown and Andrew McCutchen.

Missing from the actual roster but in the top 20 in WAR are:
–Starling Marte, sixth in the NL in everyday player WAR but both a newcomer and an all-around talent with no single standout stat that grabs popular attention.
–Russell Martin, another Pirate, much of whose WAR this season is coming from his defense (throwing out an excellent 50% of base stealers this season), which has not previously been considered a big strong point for him.
–Gerardo Parra, who with Carlos Gomez and Marte make up the top 3 NL outfielders in fielding WAR this season.
–Andrelton Simmons, WAR’s most valuable defensive player in the majors so far this season
–Jay Bruce, phee-nom Yasiel Puig and Ian Desmond are currently 18th, 19th and 20th in NL everyday player WAR. Despite his short time in the majors, WAR finds Puig as having been more valuable so far this season than All-Star outfielders Carlos Beltran, Bryce Harper and Michael Cuddyer. Puig may still make it as the fan-elected final selection to the All-Star roster.

One problem for All-Star roster constructors is the dearth of qualified third basemen in the NL this season beyond David Wright. Pedro Alvarez is on the roster, and is probably as good a pick as any for backup at third, but he is way down the list in terms of overall WAR. A WAR-maximizing strategy might be to use Matt Carpenter at third, where has played quite a bit, but Carpenter clearly deserves to start at second, and the WAR alternatives at second base aren’t especially impressive either.

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birtelcom

11 years ago

In terms of pitchers, there are 10 starting pitchers on the NL All-Star roster, eight of whom are in the top 10 in NL pitching WAR in 2013. One of the two who are not in the top 10 in WAR is Jose Fernandez, who is still the right WAR pick because he is the top WAR player for the Marlins and Miami needs somebody on the roster. The other starting pitcher on the A-S roster who is not in the NL top 10 in WAR is Madison Bumgarner, which seems like a teacher’s pet pick by Giants and All-Star… Read more »

The NL has five starters of the Top 10 bWAR (Tulo & Molina are tied @ #9). Does anyone know if this is an impressive percentage? I wonder what’s the highest number of VOTED ASG starters in a given season (for each league) who were also in the Top Nine for bWAR for their league at the time? Has there ever been a clean sweep?

Insert Name Here

I beat you to it with this concept… on Sporcle: http://www.sporcle.com/games/redsoxfan34/2013-war-all-stars-midseason

Reply to Insert Name Here

great minds….

Jeff Hill

Bumgarner is deserving of a spot on the roster as much as any of the other non all star invitees. He’s the third hardest pitcher to hit at 6.2/9 and his WHIP is 0.966. He’s sporting an 8.8/9 K rate and a 3.05 ERA. I don’t see anything bad here. Meanwhile De La Rosa is posting a 6.0/9 K rate and a WHIP of 1.284 both of which have nothing to do with park factors. His BB/K ratio stands at 2.06, nearly double Bumgarners. Chacin’s numbers are even worse than his counterpart. 5.2/9, 1.248 WHIP and 1.87 BB/K The coach… Read more »

bstar

Reply to Jeff Hill

Jeff, the WAR difference between Kershaw and Harvey is entirely explained by Clayton having pitched 15.1 more innings (138.1 to 123.0).

Here’s their WAR per 9 IP:

Kershaw – 0.345
MHarvey – 0.344

Virtually identical.

Reply to bstar

I knew it had to be innings because nothing else really explained it. Thanks…

Let me correct myself, Jeff. There’s a 0.5 WAR difference in the hitting contributions of Kershaw over Harvey, so the IP difference only explains the pitching side of it. The rest is hitting.

Baltimorechop

Whip has to do with the ballpark. If coors gives up more hits, your whip is higher

Reply to Baltimorechop

I disagree…the W in WHIP has nothing at all to do with the park the players are in and everything to do with the pitcher’s/catcher’s approach to the hitter. In fact, the H in WHIP either. Hits are hits regardless, they just go farther there.

Over the period 2009-2013, Rockies pitchers have the worst home WHIP among all teams in the majors, and it is not close. But when Rockies pitchers get away from Coors, they have an average WHIP — the team WHIP in road games since 2009 is the closest to the major league average for road games of any single team in the majors.

Coors does very much affect WHIP.

That last part is simply not true. Year after year, Coors Field gives up substantially more hits than, say, AT&T Park.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/D/PK_DEN02.htm
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/PK_SFO03.htm

As of last Friday, when I use blended WARs of BR, FG & BP, Harvey came out oh-so slightly higher than Kershaw. And Wainwright beat them both, though not by much. All three are close enough for it not to matter whomever Bochy chooses, though it would be nice if he chose Harvey, if only for the venue.

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Doug

Russell Martin … is … throwing out an excellent 50% of base stealers this season, which has not previously been considered a big strong point for him. Really? He’s placed in the top 5 in caught stealing % twice before, in 2007 and 2010, and in those two seasons and also in 2009 he placed first in number of base stealers thrown out. He was also first in those same three seasons and this year in catcher assists (further evidence of the strength and accuracy of his arm). A catcher that runners think they can steal on a lot (but… Read more »

Alex Rios’s 6 for 6 game tonight (Tue) is the first since 2009 (there were three of them that season), the 15th since 2001 and the 64th since 1916. But, it’s just the third searchable 6-1-6-2 line. Paul Waner (8-26-26) and Wally Backman (4-27-90) have the others.