Half Way Through: Blue Jays Position Players W.A.R

Just over the half way point of the season, it is a great time to take a look at how our individual Blue Jays have faired. Today I will examine the stat: Wins above replacement player (war).

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with war, it is essentially the best statistic available for assessing a players overall impact on their team. It includes both the offensive and defensive components of the game, and is measured in terms of the number of wins a player adds or detracts from their team in comparison to a “replacement player.” A replacement player here, is generally assumed to be someone from the minors or the bench who fills in for an injured player.

For this post, I will use fangraphs war. Fangraphs uses wRAA (weighted runs above average) for offense, and UZR (ultimate zone rating) for defense.

With that said, here is each Blue Jays position players war at the midway point of 2011:

Jose Bautista: 5.3

Adam Lind: 2.2

Yunel Escobar: 2.2

Jose Molina: 1.1

Corey Patterson: 1.0

J.P. Arencibia: 0.8

Eric Thames: 0.4

Juan Rivera: 0.4

Jayson Nix: 0.3

John McDonald: 0.3

Mike McCoy: 0.2

Aaron Hill: 0.1

Rajai Davis: -0.1

David Cooper: -0.2

Edwin Encarnacion: -0.5

Travis Snider: -0.6

The stand outs? How about Jose Bautista at 5.3 to lead the league. That is of course, not nearly as surprising as the back-up catcher sitting third on the team in war at 1.0. Eric Thames has also been very productive in his first 17 major league games, with a very solid 0.4 war to his credit.

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