Quote:
Originally Posted by wlight1
But the fact that (numbers pulled out of arse for argument's sake) Thome had a (say) projected 55-VORP value that season and Howard had (say) projected at 50 doesn't mean Thome's Value Over (Actual) Replacement is 5. That's why VORP is a stat in a vacuum. He's a 55-VORP player, which is why the White Sox were willing to give up Rowand and Gio Gonzalez for him at the time (although now that I've come this far, bad example, because by acquiring Thome they were only upgrading at the DH position, likely not worth the downgrade from Roward to Brian Anderson, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway if they hadn't inexplicably resigned Konerko it'd have been a very different story).
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Yes, VORP is useful because it basically gives you a guy's value relative to others at his position around the league. It is great for that.
When it comes to trades, a team should only trade if it is going to create an overall upgrade in itself. This seems obvious, but the nature of an upgrade isn't always straightforward. If you already have a pretty good 1B and you trade your not-too-bad CF for a superstar one, leaving you with a replacement-level player in CF, you'd better make sure the upgrade at 1B is more than the downgrade at CF.
Naturally there are other considerations, like age and contract, but going on the assumption that a team is in a sort of "win now" mode where they will spend what they need to in order to win, any trade made should produce a net improvement.
Like I said, this seems obvious, but sometimes you see teams make deals to get the big name guy that they don't need as much as the not-bad guy they gave up for him.