14 Responses to “WAR Data: Best Catcher Seasons Since 2000”

1. becca Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 3:10 pm

   Very surprising that Mauer had a better season by WAR in 2008 than 2009. I guess the injuries/missed games explains that.

2. Neil Paine Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 3:17 pm

   Yes, it's a combination of playing time and the fact that AL catchers OPSed .715 in 2008 and .724 in '09, so his production was being measured against a higher standard of performance (a replacement level catcher was better in 2009 than in '08).

3. JGS Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 3:43 pm

   It's not so much that replacement catchers were better in 2009--I'm guessing the spike can be almost entirely attributable to Posada being healthy (Yankee catchers OPSed 142 points higher in 09 than 08) and Mauer himself jumping up 167 points

4. Johnny Twisto Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 4:11 pm

   Actually, the difference appears to be mostly in the defense and baserunning. They appear to add up to about 1.5 WAR difference. Obviously catcher defense is very hard to quantify. I think TotalZone only accounts for base stealers for catchers.

5. Mike Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 4:24 pm

   WAR is supposed to be so great because it trys to only show a number that represents things a player has control over (not runs or RBI), yet Mauer gets penalized because Posada is better and "replacement" catchers are better in '09. He lost 7 Runs above average due to these factors which is the entire difference between the 2 seasons. The problem with the whole definition of "replacement level" is why I cannot buy into WAR. For example, in 2009 the Yankees had 54.3 wins - WAR, but the Twins had 52.3 wins - WAR, so I guess a team of replacement players for the Yankees are better than a team of replacement players for the Twins, yet they are supposed to be the players.

6. Frank Clingenpeel Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

   I am really surprised that Pudge Rodriguez' 2006 season didn't rate.

7. Johnny Twisto Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 5:58 pm

   Mike, where are you getting the 7 runs lost?

   Neil, I don't believe that WAR's positional replacement levels are based on single-season performance. (Even if they were, a 9-point change in OPS wouldn't make that much difference.) I think WAR sets the "Rpos" (positional scarcity) on a decade-by-decade basis. The other major thing is that Mauer played more than 30 games at DH last year.

8. Len Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 7:21 pm

   Mauer should have been the MVP in 2006 & 2008.

9. DavidRF Says:
   May 24th, 2010 at 9:00 pm

   Here's the all-time list. Only 16 player seasons top 7.0:

   1. 9.3 MPiazza-1997
   2. 9.1 JBench-1972
   3. 8.7 JMauer-2008
   4. 8.4 DPorter-1979
   5. 7.9 JMauer-2009
   6. 7.8 GCarter-1982
   7. 7.6 JBench-1974
   8. 7.4 DDaulton-1992
   9. 7.3 YBerra-1956
   10. 7.2 CHoiles-1993
   11. 7.2 RCampanella-1953
   12. 7.1 CFisk-1972
   13. 7.0 JMauer-2006
   14. 7.0 MPiazza-1993
   15. 7.0 BFreehan-1968
   16. 7.0 RCampanella-1951

   Pretty good company for Mauer... and a couple of surprises on the list as well.

10. TBD3 Says:
    May 24th, 2010 at 9:06 pm

    Does WAR account for defense or is it purely based on offense?

11. DavidRF Says:
    May 24th, 2010 at 10:09 pm

    @10
    WAR has components for fielding. I'm not sure how its done... and from what little I know catcher-fielding is especially hard to quantify.

    Its in there though. You can check the old Piazza vs. Rodriguez debate as a sanity check. It says that Piazza cost his teams 70 runs over his career while Rodriguez saved 154. That's about a 22 WAR swing between the two players. The two Piazza seasons above didn't quantify that badly somehow. I can't explain why just looking at the SB/CS data. There must be other stuff in the mix as well. And of course, Piazza could really hit.

12. Nat Says:
    May 24th, 2010 at 10:50 pm

    It's worth noting that FanGraphs has Mauer's 2008 WAR at 5.7, and his 2009 WAR at 8.0. This goes to show that there is not always agreement between different calculations of WAR. Where does the BBref WAR data come from?

13. Lawrence Azrin Says:
    May 25th, 2010 at 11:13 am

    "Here's the all-time list. Only 16 player seasons top 7.0:"

    DavidRF, is there some sort of bias against pre-WWII catchers?? I do not see Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey or Gabby Hartnett listed (I looked them up to check). I just find it hard to believe that ALL the greatest seasons by a catcher happened after 1950...

14. Johnny Twisto Says:
    May 25th, 2010 at 11:58 am

    Lawrence, my guess is that it's partly because those guys caught a few less games each season than more recent guys do. And also their "Rpos," which is the number of runs added for playing a tough position, appears to be less than in recent times. I'm not sure why that is; maybe because there were a lot of good catchers at the time so the position was seen as stronger overall?

    Nat, it comes from baseballprojection.com. I gotta say, I don't understand his rating of Mauer's '08. If Mauer's '08 hitting was 45 runs above average, how can his '09 be only 57 runs above average? B-R shows adjusted batting runs, which also agrees that Mauer 09 was 57 runs above average, but Mauer 08 at 32. That difference makes more sense, considering he was more than 30 points of OBP and more than 130 pts of SLG better in 09.