Quote:
Originally Posted by Questdog
WAR is not a measurement, but an estimation. Let's be clear about that.....
I have no problem with WAR as a tool, but since it IS an estimation and is based on MANY assumptions that if they all turned out to be actually true would be a miracle, I have a HUGE problem with people trying to use it as the end-all-arguments magic device.
And one more thing about it:
It is a great tool for deciding what players would be best to put on your team. It estimates the overall value of a player in a neutral context. But baseball is a game where context is nearly everything, so using it to decide who had the best season in a particular year is ludicrous.
RBI's are denounced for being a context-weighted stat and justly so for evaluating who should make the roster for next season. But for showing who was productive in the context of THIS season, they are awesome and people should not discount that. Same goes for Wins by pitchers.
Context is everything, and once we KNOW the context, we can look back and see who took advantage of the situations that presented themselves. Who's hits had meaning and who's outs were harmless. But since we do not know the context for next season, WAR is a better tool for preparing for the future.
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I agree that WAR is not a "magic device," if anybody's saying it is.
I do not agree that pitchers' wins are "awesome."