I’m toying with the idea of removing WSAB from the site in favor of bringing back my old Wins Above Replacement system. This would mean that the site would have Baseball-Reference’s WAR, my WAR, and Win Shares. I’d like to see how many people (if any) use WSAB. You don’t have to respond if you don’t use it, but if you would like to see if stay on the site, please let me know.
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Hi Dan,
Hope you continue providing WSAB though.
Here’s one vote for keeping WSAB. Here’s my spiel:
Back when all of this was rather new to me, I googled a lot, and came to the conclusion that WAR and WSAB were/are two rather distinct systems for snap-shotting player value. I can’t cite sources anymore, but I recall concluding that WSAB is rather similar to Win Shares BUT is preferable to it. Thereafter, for my own research/fun, I’ve been comparing players by multiplying WAR x WSAB, yielding an admittedly rough “combination” of the two measures.
I could of course find my WSAB info elsewhere, but I’m addicted to your method of presentation and the marvelous sorting capabilities you’ve built into your site.
I realize I’m “just one vote”.
Either way, thanks so much for all you do and all you offer!
Best,
Ken Sherwood
p.s. Might it be possible for you to scour your (actually “Seamheads'”) Web site statistics and find some info regarding how often “WSAB” cookies are issued, “WS” cookies, and so on? Just a thought.
Thanks for your opinion Ken! It’s a tough decision, and I could just have 4 stats instead of 3, but it would take a lot of time to change the site.
I’ll certainly be taking a look at the users’ cookies. Thanks for the suggestion
I do use WSAB. I also use your version of WAR. So… I don’t know what to say. I’m involved in the ongoing Most Meritous Player voting at Baseballthinkfactory and I normally use all 3 of your systems in what i call my “uber-stat blender” (including baseballreferenceWAR, fangraphsWAR, baseballprospectusWARP1 (when I can access it), and danrosenheckWARP1). Is there any chance you would be able to include 4 systems (so that you could bring back your WAR without dropping WSAB). That would be my preference. If not I’d say don’t add brWAR. If I have to choose between bgWAR and WSAB… I’ll have to ponder that one…
Hi Dan,
As it is my first post here, let me congratulate you for your elegant website! Been using it for years now…
1st of all, I think it a great idea to have a common version of WaR used accross the internet, especially since your site and BBreference can do different things with this stat so it’s great to be able to run analysis on the same version, using the 2 sites.
I feel that these 2 WaRs are not overly different, at least compared to the large conceptual difference between any WaR and WSAB.
So I would ‘vote’ as well to keep the current set-up, while maybe still offering your own version for download in a CSV format, so that ‘specialists’ still have access to it.
My 2 cents, anyway…
Jon, a fan from France
Thanks for your responses. It seems like replacing WSAB is not an option as I have also received some emails about wanting to keep it. I think for now the best solution is to keep the site “as is” but include my WAR in the downloadable .csv file (thanks for the tip, Jonathan).
I appreciate the interest in my WAR system, especially given the amount of time I devoted to it. I ultimately chose to replace it with BB-Ref’s because I honestly think it’s a superior system. The biggest difference in the two (and with most WAR systems) is fielding, and that’s why I continue to display the DRA numbers. I hope that a downloadable file will suffice for those wanting to use my WAR.
Lastly, I’m always willing to provide anyone with a customized spreadsheet with any data that may not be available on the site. Just send me an email and I’ll be happy to help out.
Hey Dan,
Thanks for listening to our input! CSV file would be fine for me I think. Question (since my understanding of technology is lacking): would the CSV be for past seasons but not this one/future ones, or would it update?
So besides my man Bob B., is Win Shares still used prevalently? I’m just wondering if the WAR and WSAB are popular because they are baselining off a low level of available talent while WS is just sorta chilling there. But I freely admit I could be way off on this.
I have a few CSV files available in the downloads section. They are updated daily and contain every season from 1871 to the previous days games. You can download files separated by individual seasons or files that are separated by each player’s careers.
As far as Win Shares are concerned, it was introduced about 10 years ago and was very popular at the time. I feel like it is used much less since then, especially with the new WAR systems. I personally would like to keep it for selfish reasons, mainly because I’ve used it ever since it came out (I was addicted to Bill James Abstract). While WAR and WSAB are compared to replacement or bench level players, Win Shares still does have a baseline of a .200 Win% player. That’s very low and a player has to be pretty bad to have 0 Win Shares.
I’m sure that some other people could give you more information on the usage and history of Win Shares.
edit: My version of WAR is not currently available in the downloads just yet. It may take me a few days, but I’ll let everyone know when it is available.
I know I’m way late to this conversation, and you’ve already decided, but I do use WSAB. I think I’m like Ken Sherwood in thinking that it’s a superior version of win shares, plus I’ve created my own spreadsheet for ranking players and use WSAB as one of the many criteria in it.
Thanks Dave. I don’t have any plans on removing it. I personally don’t use it much, but I know that it does get used, so I’m happy to have it on the site.