Yankees top 23 in career WAR analysed on Top7, JAWS, WAR/162, oWAR/dWAR.

Yankees in this post are analysed on their Yankee stats only.

Data for this post can be viewed by clicking this link. The data is also below in this post in segments with my comments. It was derived from:

For combined seasons, since 1903, Playing for NYY, in the regular season, requiring Wins Above Replacement (WAR) >= 40, sorted by descending Wins Above Replacement (WAR).

https://stathead.com/tiny/pdN6J

Note: Stats for Aaron Judge, the only active player, are through July 14, 2024. 

It was run for batting stats only. The result was 23 Yankee batters. WAR at least 40 excluded some who played only a few Yankee seasons: Jackson, Henderson, Gordon, Giambi, ... It includes Rizzuto, the surprise leader in dWAR:

Yankees top 50 career dWAR (defensive Wins Above Replacement). Thursday, June 27, 2024

Read about JAWS:

16 Hall of Fame players with WAR >= 100: Jaffe WAR Score. Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Remember, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is a total stat, not an average.

https://cooperstowncasebook.com/about/

About Jay Jaffe

In January 2004, while at Baseball Prospectus, he introduced the system that became JAWS (Jaffe WAR Score). JAWS is a tool that facilitates the comparison of Hall of Fame candidates ...

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https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/11/28/jaws-2017-hall-of-fame-ballot-introduction

It uses the baseball-reference.com version of Wins Above Replacement to estimate a player's total hitting, pitching and defensive value while accounting for the wide variations in scoring levels that have occurred throughout the game's history and from ballpark to ballpark. A player's JAWS is the average of his career WAR total and that of his peak, which I define as his best seven years. All three are useful for comparative purposes ...

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It is based on WAR, which is basically composed of oWAR and dWAR but not the simple addition of the two. As Jaffe notes, there are other versions of WAR.

There are different versions of current fielding stats and they don't always align. I am skeptical of current fielding stats. Trying to depend on fielding stats from previous epochs borders on the absurd. No disrespect to Jay Jaffe intended. He's got an interesting method.

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Baseball-Reference.com WAR Explained

So why don't we compute Wins Above Average rather than Wins above Replacement? When computing the value of a major league player, average is a poor baseline for comparison. Average players are relatively rare and can be expensive to acquire. Average players don't make the league minimum. Plus, not all average performances are equal. A team would pay much more for 200 league average innings than for 50. When a star player is injured, they are rarely replaced by an average player -- usually their replacement is much worse.

That last point is our premise here. Average players are relatively rare and difficult to obtain. Replacement level players, by their very definition, are players easy to obtain when a starter goes down. These are the players who receive non-roster invites at the start of the year, or the players who are 6-year minor league free agents.

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It gets a lot worse if you click on the link above and try reading it.

Top7:

The top 7 WAR seasons for each player are in descending horizontal order 1 through 7; BOLD indicates that the value led the American League (AL) that season. All 7 of Ruth's led the AL. Red is minimum in that column.

Elsewhere generally:
maximum: BOLD in that column
minimum: red in that column

Rk: WAR rank

Ave7: average of 1 through 7

WAR7: Ave7 * 7 or total of 1 through 7

JAWS: (WAR+WAR7)/2  the average of the two

Jrk: JAWS rank order
Rk+-: Rk - Jrk; the difference; for instance, Lazzeri dropped 5 places, Cano moved up 5.

Rk	Player	WAR		1	2	3	4	5	6	7		Ave7	WAR7	JAWS	Jrk	Rk +-	Player
1	Babe Ruth	142.8		14.1	12.8	12.6	11.9	11.4	11.4	10.5		12.1	84.7	113.75	1	0	Babe Ruth
2	Lou Gehrig	113.7		11.9	10.0	9.7	9.6	9.5	8.6	8.3		9.7	67.6	90.65	2	0	Lou Gehrig
3	Mickey Mantle	110.2		11.3	11.2	10.4	9.5	8.7	6.9	6.4		9.2	64.4	87.30	3	0	Mickey Mantle
4	Joe DiMaggio	79.1		9.3	8.4	8.3	7.1	6.9	6.4	5.7		7.4	52.1	65.60	4	0	Joe DiMaggio
5	Derek Jeter	71.3		8.0	7.5	6.6	5.6	5.2	5.0	4.6		6.1	42.5	56.90	5	0	Derek Jeter
6	Yogi Berra	59.6		6.2	6.1	5.8	5.3	5.3	4.9	4.5		5.4	38.1	48.85	7	-1	Yogi Berra
7	Bill Dickey	56.4		6.5	5.9	5.4	5.0	4.4	4.2	4.1		5.1	35.5	45.95	9	-2	Bill Dickey
8	Willie Randolph	54.1		6.6	5.8	5.3	5.0	4.7	4.6	4.1		5.2	36.1	45.10	10	-2	Willie Randolph
9	Álex Rodríguez	54.0		9.4	9.4	7.6	6.8	4.5	4.2	4.2		6.6	46.1	50.05	6	3	Álex Rodríguez
10	Bernie Williams	49.6		6.4	5.5	5.4	5.2	5.2	5.2	4.5		5.3	37.4	43.50	12	-2	Bernie Williams
11	Aaron Judge	47.8		10.5	8.0	6.4	6.1	5.9	5.6	4.5		6.7	47.0	47.40	8	3	Aaron Judge
12	Roy White	46.8		6.8	6.7	5.5	5.3	4.4	4.2	4.0		5.3	36.9	41.85	13	-1	Roy White
13	Tony Lazzeri	46.3		7.8	6.4	4.7	4.4	3.9	3.5	3.1		4.8	33.8	40.05	18	-5	Tony Lazzeri
14	Thurman Munson	46.1		7.2	6.6	5.5	5.3	4.9	4.1	3.5		5.3	37.1	41.60	14	0	Thurman Munson
15	Earle Combs	45.1		7.1	5.3	5.2	5.0	4.8	4.7	4.1		5.2	36.2	40.65	17	-2	Earle Combs
16	Robinson Canó	44.4		8.4	8.1	6.7	6.6	5.8	4.5	3.2		6.2	43.3	43.85	11	5	Robinson Canó
17	Graig Nettles	44.4		8.0	5.7	5.6	5.5	4.9	4.7	2.7		5.3	37.1	40.75	15	2	Graig Nettles
18	Brett Gardner	44.3		7.4	5.0	4.3	4.2	4.1	3.8	3.6		4.6	32.4	38.35	21	-3	Brett Gardner
19	Jorge Posada	42.7		5.9	5.5	5.4	4.4	4.0	4.0	3.5		4.7	32.7	37.70	22	-3	Jorge Posada
20	Charlie Keller	42.4		6.8	6.6	6.6	6.1	5.6	4.9	2.5		5.6	39.1	40.75	16	4	Charlie Keller
21	Don Mattingly	42.4		7.2	6.5	6.3	5.1	4.2	3.7	2.8		5.1	35.8	39.10	19	2	Don Mattingly
22	Phil Rizzuto	42.2		6.8	5.8	5.4	4.6	4.6	4.0	3.6		5.0	34.8	38.50	20	2	Phil Rizzuto
23	Gil McDougald	40.7		5.8	5.1	5.1	4.5	3.9	3.9	3.8		4.6	32.1	36.40	23	0	Gil McDougald
Rk	Player	WAR		1	2	3	4	5	6	7		Ave7	WAR7	JAWS	Jrk	Rk +-	Player
		max		14.1	12.8	12.6	11.9	11.4	11.4	10.5		12.1	84.7	113.75
		min		5.8	5.0	4.3	4.2	3.9	3.5	2.5		4.6	32.1	36.40

JAWS in rank order:

Jrk	Player	JAWS	Rk +-
1	Babe Ruth	113.75	0
2	Lou Gehrig	90.65	0
3	Mickey Mantle	87.30	0
4	Joe DiMaggio	65.60	0
5	Derek Jeter	56.90	0
6	Álex Rodríguez	50.05	3
7	Yogi Berra	48.85	-1
8	Aaron Judge	47.40	3
9	Bill Dickey	45.95	-2
10	Willie Randolph	45.10	-2
11	Robinson Canó	43.85	5
12	Bernie Williams	43.50	-2
13	Roy White	41.85	-1
14	Thurman Munson	41.60	0
15	Graig Nettles	40.75	2
16	Charlie Keller	40.75	4
17	Earle Combs	40.65	-2
18	Tony Lazzeri	40.05	-5
19	Don Mattingly	39.10	2
20	Phil Rizzuto	38.50	2
21	Brett Gardner	38.35	-3
22	Jorge Posada	37.70	-3
23	Gil McDougald	36.40	0
Jrk	Player	JAWS	Rk +-

WAR7 in rank order:

WAR7 Rk	Player	WAR7	Rk dif	WAR Rk	WAR
1	Babe Ruth	84.7	0	1	142.8
2	Lou Gehrig	67.6	0	2	113.7
3	Mickey Mantle	64.4	0	3	110.2
4	Joe DiMaggio	52.1	0	4	79.1
5	Aaron Judge	47.0	6	11	47.8
6	Álex Rodríguez	46.1	3	9	54.0
7	Robinson Canó	43.3	9	16	44.4
8	Derek Jeter	42.5	-3	5	71.3
9	Charlie Keller	39.1	11	20	42.4
10	Yogi Berra	38.1	-4	6	59.6
11	Bernie Williams	37.4	-1	10	49.6
12	Thurman Munson	37.1	2	14	46.1
13	Graig Nettles	37.1	4	17	44.4
14	Roy White	36.9	-2	12	46.8
15	Earle Combs	36.2	0	15	45.1
16	Willie Randolph	36.1	-8	8	54.1
17	Don Mattingly	35.8	4	21	42.4
18	Bill Dickey	35.5	-11	7	56.4
19	Phil Rizzuto	34.8	3	22	42.2
20	Tony Lazzeri	33.8	-7	13	46.3
21	Jorge Posada	32.7	-2	19	42.7
22	Brett Gardner	32.4	-4	18	44.3
23	Gil McDougald	32.1	0	23	40.7
WAR7 Rk	Player	WAR7	Rk dif	WAR Rk	WAR

Keller up and Dickey down move an astonishing 11 positions. Judge moves up 6 and replaces Jeter at #5. The top 4 reaming the same and in the same order. Second basemen: Cano moved up 9, Randolph down 8, Lazzeri down 7.

WAR/162: WAR/(Games/162):

WAR/162			Rk	WAR
Rk	Player	WAR/162	dif	Rk	WAR	G	G/162	PA	PA/G	From	To	Age	Player
1	Babe Ruth	11.10	0	1	142.8	2,084	12.864	9,203	4.416	1920	1934	19-40	Babe Ruth
2	Lou Gehrig	8.51	0	2	113.7	2,164	13.358	9,665	4.466	1923	1939	20-36	Lou Gehrig
3	Aaron Judge	8.32	8	11	47.8	931	5.747	4,043	4.343	2016	2024	24-32	Aaron Judge
4	Mickey Mantle	7.44	-1	3	110.2	2,401	14.821	9,910	4.127	1951	1968	19-36	Mickey Mantle
5	Joe DiMaggio	7.38	-1	4	79.1	1,736	10.716	7,672	4.419	1936	1951	21-36	Joe DiMaggio
6	Charlie Keller	6.44	14	20	42.4	1,066	6.580	4,466	4.189	1939	1952	22-35	Charlie Keller
7	Álex Rodríguez	5.80	2	9	54.0	1,509	9.315	6,520	4.321	2004	2016	28-40	Álex Rodríguez
8	Thurman Munson	5.25	6	14	46.1	1,423	8.784	5,905	4.150	1969	1979	22-32	Thurman Munson
9	Robinson Canó	5.23	7	16	44.4	1,374	8.481	5,791	4.215	2005	2013	22-30	Robinson Canó
10	Willie Randolph	5.17	-2	8	54.1	1,694	10.457	7,465	4.407	1976	1988	21-33	Willie Randolph
11	Bill Dickey	5.11	-4	7	56.4	1,789	11.043	7,065	3.949	1928	1946	21-39	Bill Dickey
12	Earle Combs	5.02	3	15	45.1	1,455	8.981	6,514	4.477	1924	1935	25-36	Earle Combs
13	Gil McDougald	4.94	10	23	40.7	1,336	8.247	5,398	4.040	1951	1960	23-32	Gil McDougald
14	Graig Nettles	4.69	3	17	44.4	1,535	9.475	6,248	4.070	1973	1983	28-38	Graig Nettles
15	Yogi Berra	4.56	-9	6	59.6	2,116	13.062	8,355	3.948	1946	1963	21-38	Yogi Berra
16	Tony Lazzeri	4.52	-3	13	46.3	1,659	10.241	7,068	4.260	1926	1937	22-33	Tony Lazzeri
17	Brett Gardner	4.25	1	18	44.3	1,688	10.420	6,614	3.918	2008	2021	24-37	Brett Gardner
18	Derek Jeter	4.20	-13	5	71.3	2,747	16.957	12,602	4.588	1995	2014	21-40	Derek Jeter
19	Phil Rizzuto	4.12	3	22	42.2	1,661	10.253	6,719	4.045	1941	1956	23-38	Phil Rizzuto
20	Roy White	4.03	-8	12	46.8	1,881	11.611	7,736	4.113	1965	1979	21-35	Roy White
21	Bernie Williams	3.87	-11	10	49.6	2,076	12.815	9,053	4.361	1991	2006	22-37	Bernie Williams
22	Don Mattingly	3.85	-1	21	42.4	1,785	11.019	7,722	4.326	1982	1995	21-34	Don Mattingly
23	Jorge Posada	3.78	-4	19	42.7	1,829	11.290	7,150	3.909	1995	2011	24-40	Jorge Posada
WAR/162	Player	WAR/162	Rk	WAR	WAR	G	G/162	PA	PA/G	From	To	Age	Player
Rk			dif	Rk
	max	11.10	14		142.8	2,747	16.957	12,602	4.588	2016	2024		max
	min	3.78	-13		40.7	931	5.747	4,043	3.909	1920	1934		min

Judge moves up to third, past Mantle and DiMaggio. Keller moves up 14 to #6. McDougald moves up 10. Jeter takes a pounding, dropping 13 places. Williams is minus 11.

It's a fundamental re-ordering as WAR the total becomes an average and not dominated by those with very long careers such as Jeter.

PA/G: all three catchers (Dickey, Berra, Posada) and Gardner are lower than 4. Of the usual top 4, Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio are all 4.4 but Mantle is only 4.1, maybe because he pinch hit a lot and came out of games because of injuries. That may account for his slipping from #3 to #4.

oWAR/dWAR:

Rk	Player	WAR	oWAR	dWAR	From	To
1	Babe Ruth	142.8	135.7	-1.9	1920	1934
2	Lou Gehrig	113.7	113.6	-9.0	1923	1939
3	Mickey Mantle	110.2	116.3	-9.6	1951	1968
4	Joe DiMaggio	79.1	74.4	3.2	1936	1951
5	Derek Jeter	71.3	96.3	-9.4	1995	2014
6	Yogi Berra	59.6	56.3	9.3	1946	1963
7	Bill Dickey	56.4	52.0	10.2	1928	1946
8	Willie Randolph	54.1	44.3	17.0	1976	1988
9	Álex Rodríguez	54.0	53.4	1.0	2004	2016
10	Bernie Williams	49.6	63.2	-9.5	1991	2006
11	Aaron Judge	47.8	41.9	3.0	2016	2024
12	Roy White	46.8	44.1	-5.8	1965	1979
13	Tony Lazzeri	46.3	46.7	5.2	1926	1937
14	Thurman Munson	46.1	43.2	11.9	1969	1979
15	Earle Combs	45.1	44.5	-2.7	1924	1935
16	Robinson Canó	44.4	43.0	5.7	2005	2013
17	Graig Nettles	44.4	35.5	13.9	1973	1983
18	Brett Gardner	44.3	29.4	12.9	2008	2021
19	Jorge Posada	42.7	48.6	2.6	1995	2011
20	Charlie Keller	42.4	38.6	-.9	1939	1952
21	Don Mattingly	42.4	39.7	-6.2	1982	1995
22	Phil Rizzuto	42.2	29.7	23.0	1941	1956
23	Gil McDougald	40.7	31.2	14.0	1951	1960
Rk	Player	WAR	oWAR	dWAR	From	To
	Max	142.8	135.7	23.0	2016	2024
	Min	40.7	29.4	-9.6	1920	1934

dWAR: As noted earlier, Rizzuto is the all time Yankee leader and by a lot, especially considering his relatively short career (6,719 PA). Also at least plus 10: Randolph, McDougald, Nettles, Gardner, Munson, Dickey.

dWAR most negative:
Mantle -9.6 (-3.8 at 1B; -5.8 mostly in CF)
Williams -9.5
Jeter -9.4 (SS was his only fielding position)
Gehrig -9.0
Mattingly -6.2 (What!?)
White -5.8

Don Mattingly was a bad fielder? 1987 was his only season with positive dWAR: 0.2. Combine that with his modest top 7 WAR: 7.2 6.5 6.3 5.1 4.2 3.7 2.8 Those who advocate for Mattingly to be elected to the Hall of Fame have a weak case.

Mattingly was AL MVP in 1985. Here are AL fielding stats for 1985:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1985-fielding-leaders.shtml

See if you can figure out why his dWAR was -0.8.

Mt. Rushmore: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle. Giants come close. Tuesday, June 25, 2024

They're not going anywhere.

***   The End   ***