WAR Comparison Chart
WAR-like stats Timeline
- 1980's - Pete Palmer publishes Total Player Rating (TPR) in Total Baseball (Wiki)
- 1992 - The Baseball Sabermetric by Brock Hanke publishes leaderboards of Total, Offensive and Defensive "Wins Above Replacement" (tweet)
- 1993 - First found reference to "Wins Above Replacement" on rec.sport.baseball (google groups)
- 1995 - Keith Woolner develops Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) on the Bosox Mailing List (Google Groups, Archive.org)
- 2001 or so - Baseball Prospectus launches Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) (Google Groups reference)
- 2002 - Bill James publishes Win Shares (Wiki)
- November 2008 - Sean Smith publishes his work on replacement level and WAR in the Hardball Times (now with Fangraphs, previously an independent website). Values later appear on baseballprojection.com. (archive.org, archive.org)
- Tom Tango publishes a how-to for what is the current framework for most WAR implementations. (Link)
- December 2008 - Fangraphs adds WAR (Blog post)
- May 2010 - Baseball-Reference adds WAR from Sean Smith of BaseballProjection (Blog post)
WAR is really just an idea of how to value players. Once you have the idea in place, there are dozens of implementation details that have multiple reasonable approaches to take. We've summarized the major frameworks below for easy comparison.
FanGraphs also has an explanation of their WAR and our previous WAR framework. Baseball Prospectus has their framework, WARP. I'm happy to add more WAR frameworks if folks want to help me fill in the details below.
Name | Previous B-R WAR, 1.0 | FanGraphs WAR | Updated B-R WAR, 2.2 | Prospectus PBP WARP | Prospectus Historical WARP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abbreviation | rWAR (for Rally WAR, "RallyMonkey", Sean Smith created this version) | fWAR | rWAR or bWAR | WARP | WARP |
Offensive Batting Metric Used | BaseRuns based offensive measure, so sum of players batting runs equals team total. | wRAA | wRAA with additional tweaks | Deserved Runs (DRC+) | BaseRuns-derived LWTS |
Fielding #'s Used | Total Zone Ratings using PBP when possible. | TZR pre-2002, Ultimate Zone Rating 2002 and after | TZR pre-2003, Baseball Info Solutions Defensive Runs Saved with Batted Ball Timer 2003 and after | FRAA | FRAA (non pbp) |
Starting Point for Pitching WAR | Runs Allowed | Fielding Independent Pitching | Runs Allowed | Deserved Runs (DRA) | |
Batting Details | |||||
Adjusted for park | Yes | 5-year regressed park factors | 3-year park factors | Yes, directly modeled year by year | |
Park Factor Applied to Batter or League Average | Batter | Batter | Batter | Applied at the PA level | League |
Computes Batting Lg Avgs using entire MLB or individual leagues | Ind. Leagues | Ind. Leagues | Ind. Leagues | NA | |
Includes P's in Lg Avg | No | No | No | NA | |
Includes ROE | Yes | No | Yes | Infield ROE for batters and pitchers, all ROE for fielders | |
Estimates CS for seasons it is unknown | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
Includes SB/CS in Batting or Baserunning | In Baserunning | In Baserunning | In Baserunning | In Baserunning | |
Includes Positional Adjustments | Yes | Yes | Yes, across lgs always sum to 0 | Yes | |
Varies Replacement Level by Lg's Quality of Competition | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
Caps total contribution by Replacement Level Runs to prevent overvaluing of leadoff hitters | Yes | No | No | No | |
Counts SO and non-SO outs separately | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
Directly uses the PythagenPat WL% estimator to compute Wins Above Avg | No | No | Yes | No | |
Runs to win calculation includes the league run environment | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Runs to wins calculation includes the runs the player adds or subtracts | No | No | Yes | No | |
Differentiates between infield and outfield singles from 2003 on. | No | No | Yes | All Seasons | |
Adjusts for ability to avoid double plays | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Adjusts for Non-basestealing baserunning | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Available in a form with fielding metrics excluded | Yes, oWAR is WAR with defensive runs assumed to be zero or average | No | Yes, oWAR for offensive WAR | VORP | |
Fielding Details | |||||
Uses measures for player range | Yes, TZR | Yes, UZR or OAA | Yes, DRS or TZR | Yes, FRAA | |
Uses measures for OF arms and DP ability | Yes | Yes | Yes | BRR_ARM and OF_AST measure different facets of OF arms. DP ability is not measured. | |
Uses measures for catcher throwing | Yes | Yes, rSB from DRS | Yes, DRS | Yes, SRAA and TRAA | |
Uses measures for good plays and misplays like relay throws or missing the cutoff man | No | No | Yes, DRS | No | |
Uses measures for catcher defense including blocking pitches and framing | No | Yes, FRM for framing, RPP for blocking | Yes (DRS), but does not include framing | Yes, CSAA and EPAA | |
Pitching Details | |||||
Years Available | 1871-present | 1871-present | 1871-present | 1950-Present, pre-1950 coverage will increase | |
Uses Park Factors | Yes, 3-year | Yes, 5-year, regressed | Yes, 3-year | Yes, directly modeled year by year | |
Adjusts Park Factors to parks actually pitched in | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
Park Factor applied to pitcher or run support? | Lg Avg Pitcher | Pitcher | Lg Avg Pitcher | NA. It is applied at the PA level | Run Support |
Adjusts league average by teams pitched against | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
Adjusts league average for interleague play | No | No | Yes | No | |
Adjusts replacement level by quality of league | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
Recent replacement level | .320 (52-110) | .294 (48-114) (link) | .294 (48-114) | N/A (replacement level is not set to a specific team record) | |
Directly uses the PythagenPat WL% estimator to compute Wins Above Avg | No | No | Yes | No | |
Runs to win calculation includes the league run environment | Yes | Yes, but not described for batters | Yes | Yes | |
Runs to wins calculation includes the runs the player adds or subtracts | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Adjusts runs to win calculation by length of pitcher's outings | No | Unclear | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Adjusts runs above replacement level for when pitcher is starter or reliever | Yes | Yes, as part of replacement level calculation | Yes, but it is applied to avg rather than replacement | Yes | Yes |
Adjusts performance by team defense | Yes | Not applicable since FIP-based | Yes | As appropriate | Yes |
Adjusts Reliever WAR by Leverage Index | Yes | Yes | Yes, Applied to WAA and then recentered to not affect league total WAA | No | No |
Credits starting pitcher for effect on saving/taxing bullpen | No | No | No | No | |
Other Details | |||||
Converts WAR into FA Salary Values | No | Yes | No | No | |
Downloadable | No | Yes, annual and custom reports dowloadable to excel | Yes, full historical csv updated daily and usable by anyone with citation and link | No, except for 2020-2021, but eventually yes, via leaderboards | No (but eventually yes) |
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