WAR From Baseball-Reference Now Available

Thanks to Sean Forman and the Baseball-Reference team, we are now able to display their Wins Above Replacement on The Baseball Gauge.

This will replace my previous WAR that was introduced at the beginning of the season. This change was made in an effort to help make B-R’s statistic the “universal” WAR. Since the biggest difference between this version of WAR and our previous system was the fielding metric, we are going to continue to display Defensive Regression Analysis on the site. But understand that this WAR system does not include DRA.

Currently, we only show the basic oWAR, dWAR, pWAR and position adjustment. We encourage everyone to visit Baseball-Reference for more detailed components of the WAR system.

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11 Responses to WAR From Baseball-Reference Now Available

  1. Dr. Doom says:

    As long as DRA is displayed on the site, I think it’s a great idea. I would really love to see some sort of side-by-side of TZ, UZR, and DRA out in the internets someday, but that’s probably a ways off. Anyway, I think that’s a good step forward, and will help to create a more “official” WAR – I don’t see Fangraphs or BPro changing anytime soon, though.

    • Dan Hirsch says:

      It would be tough to do a side by side of all the defensive metrics because I have limited access to some of them. But it would be very interesting to see.

      I know that BPro and Fangraphs won’t be changing their WAR, but having a fourth system on this site wasn’t really helping much. I do like to compare the 3 systems and see their differences, but I prefer BB-Ref’s method, especially for historical comparisons.

  2. oriolesfan83 says:

    Dan, I hope you would reconsider. When there is no one perfect way to measure a player’s value, the more data the better. Your WAR system, especially when incorporating DRA, was another important dataset. There are many examples (such as George Sisler) where your interpretation of their value differed significantly from B-Ref or FG and I feel that difference paints a better picture of the player. More information is always better. I also don’t think there is a need for a “universal WAR.” Most people are savvy enough to recognize that there is no one correct way to measure value and that no WAR system is perfect. And for those who don’t, I don’t think we need to cater to them. At the least, you could keep the B-Ref WAR and also have yours for an easy comparison. I know a bunch of voters at the BBTF HOM were using your data and I just think its sad for baseball fans that you’re taking away your information.

    • Dan Hirsch says:

      I really appreciate your opinion, you make some good points. I don’t think I will get rid of B-Ref’s WAR, but I could get rid of Win Shares Above Bench and replace it with my WAR system. Personally, I very rarely look at WSAB, and I don’t have a problem replacing it if most visitors feel the same. Let me see what others think, and hopefully I can get my old WAR back up on the site.

      Also, If I do go ahead with this, I may need to change the name of my WAR to something else to differentiate the two versions of WAR.

      Thanks again for your input!

      • Bob B. says:

        I’m one of those BBTF HOM members who oriolesfan83 is referring to (and thanks again for informing me about this). Anyway, I just posted a comment on your WSAB post stating that I do use WSAB… as well as your version of WAR. Personally, I’m more interested in your site keeping bgWAR and WSAB than in its adding (well, keeping) brWAR since I can access it at baseball reference (although I agree with orilesfan83 that it would be interesting to be able to compare the two at one site).

        Mostly, though, thanks for the website. It’s pretty awesome.

  3. Keith Carlson says:

    Dan
    I’m confused. I was pleased to see you use Humpreys’ DRA last spring. Then in June you announced BB Reference, but said DRA was still displayed. I downloaded your most recent version and don’t see DRA. What am I missing?
    Keith Carlson

  4. oriolesfan83 says:

    Hey Dan,
    If you’re going to keep Baseball Reference’s WAR, you might want to change how it’s presented–the way it is calculated now, oWar and dWar don’t add up to total WAR, and the positional adjustment is in both oWAR and dWAR. Just a thought.
    Also looking forward to your WAR being available in the downloads soon, hopefully.

    • Dan Hirsch says:

      I’m not sure how you’d like it to be displayed. I currently display it just as B-R does, where PosAdj is included in both o and dWAR. Are you suggesting that I remove the PosAdj from both?

      • oriolesfan83 says:

        Hi Dan,
        I don’t know the best way to present it. I just wondered if people would be confused that the components don’t add up. It’s not really a big deal.

  5. David Kaiser says:

    I recently got into a controversy on another site over Hal of Fame candidacies, and using this site, I discovered that there is a pronounced lack of correlation between win shares on the one hand, and WAR on the other. The same number of win shares can translate into very significantly different WAR, both between different players and in different seasons for the same player. I am certainly under the impression that both these measurements are supposed to measure total player value, and that means something is very wrong with one of them, at least. (There is one anomaly involving win shares which I identified when Bill James first published them: if your team finishes way ahead or way behind its Pythagorean percentage, this distorts the total number of win shares available for that team and thus increases or reduces those won by individuals. But I doubt that could be the whole explanation for this.)
    I would appreciate any explanation anyone can give me and any pointers on exactly how these stats are derived Thank you.

    David Kaiser, author, Epic Season, the 1948 American League Pennant Race.

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