Deadball Era Pitcher WAR

tayloraj · 03-21-2018, 12:23 PM

From my experience of a historical replay beginning in 1909, it seems like the WAR calculation used in this year's game is really tough on Deadball Era pitchers. For example, Sad Sam Jones pitched 311 innings in 1917, going 23-12 with a 2.19 ERA (123 ERA+). For this his WAR was 0.2.
Sure, he benefited from a good defense, and his BB/K ratio wasn't too good, but I find it kind of hard to believe that a season like that is basically worthless. Is the WAR calculation system geared towards more modern, much higher strikeout environments?

Matt Arnold · 03-21-2018, 12:34 PM

It's currently based heavily on FIP, so yes, deadball era pitchers will probably show some weird values, just because they tend to have a very weird skew of BB/K/HR compare to what FIP is "meant" to calculate.

I would imagine his ra9WAR value should be better. We'll definitely think about ways to potentially show that one instead as the default pitcher WAR value in some cases.

tayloraj · 03-21-2018, 12:42 PM

Thanks for the reply, Matt. Is RA9WAR the value that shows up as rWAR in Pitching Stats 2?

03-21-2018, 12:23 PM	#1
tayloraj Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 165	Deadball Era Pitcher WAR From my experience of a historical replay beginning in 1909, it seems like the WAR calculation used in this year's game is really tough on Deadball Era pitchers. For example, Sad Sam Jones pitched 311 innings in 1917, going 23-12 with a 2.19 ERA (123 ERA+). For this his WAR was 0.2. Sure, he benefited from a good defense, and his BB/K ratio wasn't too good, but I find it kind of hard to believe that a season like that is basically worthless. Is the WAR calculation system geared towards more modern, much higher strikeout environments?

03-21-2018, 12:34 PM	#2
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 16,218	It's currently based heavily on FIP, so yes, deadball era pitchers will probably show some weird values, just because they tend to have a very weird skew of BB/K/HR compare to what FIP is "meant" to calculate. I would imagine his ra9WAR value should be better. We'll definitely think about ways to potentially show that one instead as the default pitcher WAR value in some cases.

03-21-2018, 12:42 PM	#3
tayloraj Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 165	Thanks for the reply, Matt. Is RA9WAR the value that shows up as rWAR in Pitching Stats 2?