I was mainly kidding, JA, but it’s always good to relive that wonderful time in Braves history. I was just pointing out that even a Braves fan at the time thought Barry Lamar deserved the trophy.

Bonds led the league in OBP, OPS, OPS+, WAR, stole 43 bags, played superb defense in left, and had more HR/BB/RBI/R than Pendleton. I understand the narrative surrounding Pendleton was strong, but I still don’t agree with it.

Wow, Larkin with 5.9 WAR (4.8 oWAR) in just 123 games.

I think the ’91 Braves are a great example of why people still don’t trust the WAR defense numbers. Here’s a team which came out of nowhere to win the pennant, largely based on the strength of their pitching. And yet, according to the defensive numbers, those pitchers were backed by an atrocious defense. WAR shows the defense costing the Braves 98 runs (nearly 10 wins). Prime contributors were Ron Gant (-27), Jeff Blauser (-18), Dave Justice (-14), Jeff Treadway (-9), Lonnie Smith (-9), and Deion Sanders (-8). Most of these guys, btw, have positive numbers for their career (Blauser… Read more »

Thanks Mosc! It’s actually worse than I originally suspected. In 1990, the Braves were awful at both pitching (4.58 ERA, 12th in the NL) and fielding (-58 fielding runs). Somehow in 1991, their pitching dramatically improved (3.49 ERA, 3rd in the NL) while simultaneously their defense deteriorated (-98 fielding runs). And are you ready for this? Their worst fielder in 1990 was 3rd baseman Jim Presley (-21 fielding runs); they replaced him in 1991 with Terry Pendleton who was their best fielder that year (+7 fielding runs). Now please explain to me how all those parts work together. Replacing your… Read more »

Fair points Bstar. However, consider the following years team. The ’92 Braves were +39 in fielding runs, a dramatic 137 run improvement over the prior year’s team. This occurred while using essentially the same team as the year before. Meanwhile their traditional fielding metrics didn’t change much. They went from 10th to 4th in fielding percentage but they only improved from .978 to .982 which probably means there were several teams bunched closely together one or both years. They did commit 29 fewer errors but obviously that’s not nearly enough to account for a 137 run defensive improvement. And they… Read more »

Hmm, for one thing I think you’re giving defense more credit for pitching success than I ever would. I’m convinced the number of batted balls where who the defender is actually matters is a lot lower than people realize. What explains the difference between ’90 and ’91? Well, Tom Glavine morphed into the best pitcher in the league, for one. Steve Avery improved his ERA over 200 points. If half of your top 4 shows dramatic improvement, why can’t a team’s pitching improve despite bad defense? Also, the Braves hired Leo Mazzone in June of 1990. Maybe you start to… Read more »

I think bstar’s point about the number of balls in play where it really makes a difference who the defenders are is just this: – all major league fielders will make routine plays with almost the same efficiency – difference between fielders then is mostly at the margins – a good fielder will turn a tough chance into an out, and the poor fielder won’t – if your pitching is better, then the % of BIP that are hit hard should drop; ergo, there should be more routine plays that even a poor defense can handle – thus, the answer… Read more »