Year-By-Year Mets Team WAR Leaders (Non-Pitchers)

by birtelcom on Sep 5, 2011 9:43 PM EDT

Although Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs calculate Wins Above Replacement (WAR) using somewhat different formulas, the two systems agree as to which Met was the team's highest WAR-producing non-pitcher in 43 of the team's 49 full seasons to date. For every season from 1976 through 2008, the two systems agree on the season's Mets' top WAR everyday player.

Both systems agree that Cleon Jones, Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry and Edgardo Alfonzo were each the Mets' top WAR non-pitcher in three different seasons. B-Ref also has Beltran leading in three seasons, while Fangraphs has David Wright the leader in 2009 rather than Beltran, and so gives Carlos only two years as the team leader in non-pitcher WAR.

Both systems find the following guys to have been the team leaders in two different seasons: Ron Hunt, Lee Mazzilli, John Stearns, Howard Johnson and Bobby Bonilla. Fangraphs also has David Wright as a two-time leader, in 2007 and 2009, while B-Ref only has him as the leader in '07.

Fangraphs has Wright's 2007 as the highest single-season WAR performance by any Met non-pitcher, while B-Ref gives that honor jointly to John Olerud's 1998 and Bernard Gilkey's freaky 1996, with Wright's 2007 behind them in third place.

In addition to 2009, the other seasons in which Fangraphs and B-Ref produce different team leaders in non-pitcher WAR are 1965 (Johnny Lewis at B-Ref, Charlie Smith at Fangraphs), 1968 (Ed Charles at B-Ref, Cleon Jones at Fangraphs), 1972 (Willie Mays at B-Ref, Duffy Dyer at Fangraphs -- amusing juxtaposition there), 1974 (Cleon Jones at B-Ref, Bud Harrelson at Fangraphs) and 1975 (Del Unser at B-Ref, Rusty Staub at Fangraphs).

There are also a few years in which one system or the other produced ties. In 1964, both systems agree on Ron Hunt as a team leader in non-pitcher WAR, but only B-Ref has Joe Christopher tied with Hunt. In 1992, both systems agree on Eddie Murray, but Fangraphs has Dick Schofield tied with Murray. And both systems agree on Cliff Floyd at the top in non-pitcher WAR in 2003, but Fangraphs has the very young Jose Reyes in his debut season tied with Floyd that year.

Here's the full 49-year iist of year-by-year Mets team leaders in non-pitcher WAR (Reyes seems very likely to finish as the 2011 leader in both the B-Reference and Fangraphs versions).

B-Reference	Year	Fangraphs
Frank Thomas	1962	Frank Thomas
Ron Hunt	1963	Ron Hunt
R Hunt/J Christopher	1964	Ron Hunt
Johnny Lewis	1965	Charlie Smith
Ken Boyer	1966	Ken Boyer
Tommy Davis	1967	Tommy Davis
Ed Charles	1968	Cleon Jones
Cleon Jones	1969	Cleon Jones
Tommie Agee	1970	Tommie Agee
Cleon Jones	1971	Cleon Jones
Willie Mays	1972	Duffy Dyer
Wayne Garrett	1973	Wayne Garrett
Cleon Jones	1974	Bud Harrelson
Del Unser	1975	Rusty Staub
John Milner	1976	John Milner
Lenny Randle	1977	Lenny Randle
John Stearns	1978	John Stearns
Lee Mazzilli	1979	Lee Mazzilli
Lee Mazzilli	1980	Lee Mazzilli
Hubie Brooks	1981	Hubie Brooks
John Stearns	1982	John Stearns
Keith Hernandez	1983	Keith Hernandez
Keith Hernandez	1984	Keith Hernandez
Gary Carter	1985	Gary Carter
Keith Hernandez	1986	Keith Hernandez
Darryl Strawberry	1987	Darryl Strawberry
Darryl Strawberry	1988	Darryl Strawberry
Howard Johnson	1989	Howard Johnson
Darryl Strawberry	1990	Darryl Strawberry
Howard Johnson	1991	Howard Johnson
Eddie Murray	1992	E Murray/D Schofield
Bobby Bonilla	1993	Bobby Bonilla
Bobby Bonilla	1994	Bobby Bonilla
Jeff Kent	1995	Jeff Kent
Bernard Gilkey	1996	Bernard Gilkey
Edgardo Alfonzo	1997	Edgardo Alfonzo
John Olerud	1998	John Olerud
Robin Ventura	1999	Robin Ventura
Edgardo Alfonzo	2000	Edgardo Alfonzo
Mike Piazza	2001	Mike Piazza
Edgardo Alfonzo	2002	Edgardo Alfonzo
Cliff Floyd	2003	C Floyd/J Reyes
Mike Cameron	2004	Mike Cameron
David Wright	2005	David Wright
Carlos Beltran	2006	Carlos Beltran
David Wright	2007	David Wright
Carlos Beltran	2008	Carlos Beltran
Carlos Beltran	2009	David Wright
Angel Pagan	2010	Angel Pagan

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any vetting or approval process. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions, reasoning skills, or attention to grammar and usage rules held by the editors of this site.

Tweet Comment 9 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Good stuff birt, as always

by Criss Angel Couldn't Make Frenchy Vanish on Sep 5, 2011 11:06 PM EDT reply actions

Could you list the list?

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.

AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Sep 5, 2011 11:50 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah

Really opened this link hoping for a sexy list with names and team leading WAR in neatly arranged columns. Slightly disappointed.

"I only wanted a few things out of life -- a wife, children, to play baseball and to hunt deer." - Turk Wendell

by Rey-O on Sep 6, 2011 12:01 AM EDT up reply actions

You got it. I've edited the post to add the list.

by birtelcom on Sep 6, 2011 8:07 AM EDT up reply actions

Funny, Piazza only had one year

by CervezaVerde on Sep 6, 2011 7:16 PM EDT reply actions

WAR is a tough performance measure for catchers

because it is to a large extent a “counting” stat — the more games you play (above replacement level) the higher your WAR. Because they play fewer games, catchers are handicapped when going head to head against guys who can play almost every game. Piazza’s weakness on defense doesn’t help either. Although Mike is third on the Mets all-time franchise list in OPS+ (a rate stat, not a counting stat) b-ref has him as only eighth in total career WAR by a Met among non-pitchers, and only 14th in Mets franchise career WAR if you include pitcher WAR as well.

by birtelcom on Sep 6, 2011 9:01 PM EDT up reply actions