Quote:
Originally Posted by Brutus
There were 17 players who recorded more WAR than Stanton's 5.8 last year. Must be a lot of generational talents in baseball right now.
In the peak of his career, Griffey was a 7-10 win player. Now THAT is a generational talent.
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First, Stanton was a 6 WAR player in only 500 PAs of playing time. The players ahead of him on that list achieved their WAR with an average of 165 more PAs. Basically they had the benefit of roughly playing a quarter of the season more than Stanton. Only two players had greater than 5.8 WAR when their playing time was normalized to Stanton's (Trout and Posey). Or to put it another way, if Stanton was normalized to the average playing time of the guys above him, he was on pace to be a 7.7 WAR player.
Second, how many were 22 or younger? (hint: 2: Heyward and Trout). The average age of the 17 position players you're referring to is 28. It's not really fair to compare Stanton at age 22 to Jr during his peak years though when using important context such as playing time and age, Staton is hanging right with young Jr. That said, I think most would concede that Stanton is probably likely to be somewhere below the career of one of the top 5 centerfielders of all time but Stanton is not at his peak and he could easily be a 7 to 10 WAR guy at age 28. The guy is a very unique, elite trueskill player.
Third, Chapman is a relief pitcher. He was one of the most dominating bullpen arms in the majors last year and was only worth 3.3 WAR. He may become a dominant starter. He MAY. Right now it's counting unhatched chickens. Speaking of unhatched chickens, that's what Hamilton is as well. Would Chapman's WAR double as a starter? How many starting pitchers posted a WAR over 6 last season? (hint 2: Verlander and King Felix). It generally takes such an arm somewhere in the neighborhood of 230-250 innings to do it. Is Chapman a lock to ever pitch 230 innings? If he did, would he do it with a FIP around 3 or lower? As unhatched chickens go, it seems writing Chapman in as a 6.5 WAR pitcher in ink is assuming a great deal.
When talking about a team that should contend for the WS over the next several seasons, i'll take a bird in the hand over two in the bush.