WAA

WAA, which stands for Wins Above Average, is a statistical measure that defines a player's worth in terms of his contribution as compared to the average major league player. WAA is strongly correlated to team performance, that is the sum of WAA by all of a team's players will almost always represent its final record.

The major difference between WAA and its main rival, WAR (Win Above Replacement) is that the latter is calculated in comparison to a theoretical replacement player, i.e. a player in the higher minor leagues typically available at little or no cost. This leads to WAR giving more weight to players who accumulate a lot of playing time, even if they are below average, because they are still better that the very low level of the theoretical replacement player.

WAA is derived from the "Total Player Rating" that was developed by Peter Palmer and John Thorn in their seminal 1984 work, The Hidden Game of Baseball.

Further Reading

• Campbell Gibson: "WAA vs. WAR: Which Is the Better Measure for Overall Performance in MLB, Wins Above Average or Wins Above Replacement?", in Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 48 Number 2, Fall 2019, pp. 29-35.