Monday Morning Mets Mind Boggler: League-average and replacement-level players

Advanced metrics can be a powerful tool for evaluating players. Some of the most interesting are those that adjust for the league, park, and year in which a player played, allowing you to compare every player on somewhat equal footing.

The wRC+ stat accomplishes this for hitters, while ERA- and FIP- does so for pitchers. All three stats use 100 as a league-average baseline, with a 110 wRC+, a 90 ERA-, and a 90 FIP- indicating 10% better than league average. WAR, on the other hand, measures a player’s total output and uses zero as a baseline to indicate replacement-level performance—which, keep in mind, is different than league average. A player with a positive WAR total is better than replacement level, while a player with a negative WAR total is worse.

For this week’s Mind Boggler, we’re asking you to name every player in Mets history with a 100 wRC+, a 100 ERA-, a 100 FIP-, or 0 WAR over the course of a full season. To qualify for this list, the player needs to have qualified for a batting or ERA title, which requires 502 plate appearances and 162 innings pitched, respectively.

League-average and replacement-level players

You’ll have three minutes for this quiz. Good luck, and remember to post your time and score in the comments!