Quote:
Originally Posted by Argonaut
I hate to follow actionjackson's soliloquy with a simple and boring post, but here it goes.
I like WAR as a nice round number to judge value at a glance. Where it falls short as a metric based on my testing is that it undervalues knuckleball pitchers and defensive catchers, two types of players I like. That I'm fairly certain on.
Anecdotally, I also feel WAR overvalues bat-first players in traditionally defense-first positions. I.E. shortstop and centerfield. If there's a 40 rated SS with 4.0 WAR on one team, and an 80 rated SS with 4.0 WAR on another team, I bet the 2nd team actually got more "real wins" from the SS position. I realize WAR takes into account defensive runs saved, but I just don't trust it in this case.
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Defensive runs saved in real life are difficult to account for, but in a baseball simulation like OOTP they become the result of calculation somewhere in the depths of the program and as such they ought to be known exactly. So, the OOTP version of WAR should be able to accurately value a defensive SS vs. an offensive SS. Real life WAR, perhaps not so much.
At least, OOTP ought to provide a 100% accurate version of Zone Rating and then any issues are with the formula itself, not the data that goes into it.
For defensive catchers, the added value shows up in the WAR of the pitchers he handles, so that makes evaluation with WAR more difficult, even in OOTP.