Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Good ol' Baseball Reference has just eaten up more of my time. They added WAR (Wins Above Replacement) ratings for all of the Jays era and beyond. So, who are the best Jays by this measure and do we agree with it at all?

Note: the figures do not include 2010.

For the Jays the all time career leaders...
Offense:

Carlos Delgado: 33.8
Tony Fernadez: 33.3
Jesse Barfield: 27.2 (!)
Vernon Wells: 23.7 (highest active)

Bit of a surprise to see Barfield so high - I think we all forget just how good he was and how many runs his defense saved (over 20 4 times, amazing for a right fielder - for comparison Tony Fernandez/Alex Gonzalez #1 & 2 have never cracked 15 at shortstop, while Ozzie Smith [top SS defense ever to many] only did it 4 times and Roberto Clemente [in RF, viewed as best ever] only 4 times and Willie Mays just twice). Extremely tight race between Fernandez & Delgado - a slight change to the formula could easily shift the #1/2 positions.

Pitching...

Dave Stieb: 53.6
Roy Halladay: 47.4
Jimmy Key: 27.8 (big drop off)
Pat Hentgen: 25.3 (last one 25+)
...
Scott Downs (tied for #18): 7.7 (highest active)

No shock for the top 4, or for the spread between Stieb/Halladay and Key/Hentgen (Clancy & Guzman are the others over 20). Clemens is next with Henke at #8 (16.5) the highest rated reliever. Ricky Romero just makes the top 50 with 2.4 WAR. What is funny is if you go by wins you still get a very similar top 5 - Clancy moves to #3 ahead of Key & Hentgen otherwise the top 5 stay the same.

What about individual seasons?
Hitting...

John Olerud 1993: 8.2
Jesse Barfield 1986: 7.3
Vernon Wells 2006: 6.7
Jesse Barfield 1985: 6.6
Fred McGriff 1989: 6.6

The rest of the top 10 include two seasons each for Delgado & Alomar with Moseby sneaking in there. 4 of the top 15 are from 1993 (no shock). Last year's Scutaro & Hill seasons come in #17 and #18 all time. George Bell's 1987 MVP season comes in #23 at 5.0 WAR tied with Tony Fernandez of the same season. Other 6+ seasons include another McGriff season, and Devon White's 1993. Multiple 6+ years were done by Barfield, McGriff, Delgado and Alomar. Of note on defense: Devo has 3 of those 20+ seasons including a 33 run saved season (amazing) in 1992.
Pitching...

Roger Clemens 1997: 10.3
Pat Hentgen 1996: 8.4
Dave Stieb 1984: 7.7
Roger Clemens 1998: 7.5
Roy Halladay 2003: 7.5

The next 2 are Halladay seasons (including 2009's season) with seasons over 6 including a total of 4 Halladay years, 4 Stieb years, 2 Clemens, plus Hentgen, Key, Guzman, and Eichhorn's amazing 1986 season. The big shock is seeing Hentgen's '96 so high. I doubt many would rank it above Stieb's peak or Halladay's. His 265.2 IP (league leading) #2 ERA in the league (156 ERA+) both helped a lot I suspect as does his 10 complete games (forgot he lead for 96 and 97 in CG and shutouts then never cracked 200 IP again). That was a heck of a season for Hentgen. No one currently on the Jays has had a season in the top 50 (3.3 WAR required) with Marcum's 3.1 in 2008 coming the closest (I think).

Biggest things this shows us is to appreciate just how good Jesse Barfield was, how amazing Hentgen's peak season was, and how consistently amazing Halladay was here. Any surprising seasons/players not in the top 5?

Posted by John Northey on Monday, May 17 2010 @ 01:02 PM EDT.

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AWeb - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 02:09 PM EDT (#215170) #

The first obvious "missing" player is Delgado from the top 5 single seasons - his best barely misses out, but just how bad was his defense/baserunning for an OPS+ of 181in 162 games to not make it? Fernandez being that high is a bit surprising to me, but a good hitting middle infielder is hugely valuable.

It's annoying to think it is likely that Clemens will remain atop the Blue Jays pitching single season list forever, but 10.3 WAR is one of the top-ten best seasons ever in the live-ball era - even Pedro never made it that high (didn't pitch enough innings). It's even better if you take out the "high-mound" deadball era of the 1960's.

John Northey - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 02:25 PM EDT (#215172) #

What is funny is that Halladay might eclipse Clemens mark this year, but will be on the Phillies leaderboard instead :(

12.2 is their WAR record (Carlton in his amazing 1972 season). 3 other times they've had someone crack 10 but all of those were in the 1800's.

FYI: all time WAR record is Old Hoss Radbourn's 19.80 in 1884. In fact, the top 3 seasons are all from that year. 12.40 by Walter Johnson in 1913 is the highest in the 1900's then comes Carlton's 1972 with Bob Gibson's 1968 being the only other non-1800's season in the top 30 all-time. Hentgen's year is #188 all-time (Clemens #61).

For offense Babe Ruth sets the tone in 1923 with his 14.70. Mickey Mantle's 12.90 in 1956 is the best post-integration while Bonds' 2001 is #2 for that era at 12.50 (tied with Mantle's 1957) followed by 2 more of the Bonds' * seasons. Olerud's 1993 is tied for 247th all-time.

vw_fan17 - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 02:56 PM EDT (#215177) #

Speaking of Mr. Halladay.. Here's a little tidbit from his ESPN profile. Doc turns it up another notch!

News: Halladay has been using a split-fingered change-up this year for the first time and has found success with the pitch, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Spin: Halladay learned the pitch from Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee, who had worked on it with Kyle Kendrick. "It's been outstanding," Halladay said last week. "It took a while to get in spring training and it's still coming. There are days when it's better than others. But it's been far more effective than anything else I've done to this point." In 2009, Halladay threw his change-up 4.6 percent of the time. This year, he has used the change-up for 13.1 percent of his total pitches. Halladay has thrown the change-up for a strike 60 percent of the time, and 41.3 percent of those strikes have been swings-and-misses. The addition of a reliable change-up has given Halladay a fourth pitch to use, making him even more difficult for hitters to face.

John Northey - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 02:57 PM EDT (#215178) #

OK - this is just getting unfair to hitters. Next thing you know Halladay will learn a knuckleball just to totally screw hitters up.

Mike Green - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 03:20 PM EDT (#215180) #

It wasn't widely accepted that Barfield was the best rightfielder in the American League of the mid-80s, but he was. All those baserunner kills were not just wimpy assists...I really wish that Barfield and Fernandez had had the opportunity to play on a better surface.

92-93 - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 04:16 PM EDT (#215188) #

Travis Snider has been placed on the DL, and I wonder if EE is ready and will be the guy to replace him. Funny how things seem to sort themselves out.

Alex Obal - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 04:23 PM EDT (#215190) #

Emaus, anyone?

Mike Green - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 04:38 PM EDT (#215194) #

That's a shame about Snider.

As for replacements, you could call up Hoffpauir, Emaus, Encarnacion, or Thames. If you wanted to be adventurous, you could call up both Thames and Encarnacion, outright Ruiz, run out an outfield of Thames, Wells and Lewis against RHP with Lind DHing and Lind, Wells and Lewis against LHP with Encarnacion DHing.

The club has had a nice R/L balance since Lewis arrived and Snider started to hit. It would be good to keep that going while not interfering with an infield defence which has been pretty good.

dan gordon - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 04:59 PM EDT (#215196) #

Encarnacion to be activated tomorrow - Fan 590.

John Northey - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 05:03 PM EDT (#215197) #

That would be ideal for the Jays I guess, EE being back while Snider goes on the DL.

If not though, looking at the 40 man (doubt they'd call up someone not on it for a short term stay), Jeremy Reed is there in the outfield while infielders Dopirak and Hoffpauir are there. Oh, and Hechavarria but he ain't coming up already.

Hoffpauir is hitting 331/403/496 and can play third thus shifting Bautista back to RF. That would probably be smooth for the team right now. Reed is at 275/350/367 but lifetime in the majors is 255/313/356 over 1350 PA's.

Likely move is bringing Reed back up. Riskier move is Hoffpauir as he has less of a track record in the majors (16 PA) thus you'd be counting on improved defense and at least a 700 OPS. I'd rather see Hoffpauir as he can play 3B/2B/SS/OF which is very valuable in these days of short benches. At 27 he is what you see, and his contact ability would be a nice change of pace on this team.

Of course, if EE doesn't return right away then whoever comes up will have a very short audition period before being sent back unless they impress drastically.

Alex Obal - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 05:11 PM EDT (#215199) #

After deeper contemplation of the minor-league stats, sign me up for the Thames/Encarnacion plan. Anything reasonable that keeps Encarnacion away from third is great, in my opinion. When Snider returns, do you replace Thames with Jeremy Reed (or whoever)?

Mike Green - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 05:42 PM EDT (#215201) #

Sure, that's one reasonable possibility. I am not crazy about the reasoning that Encarnacion should be the everyday third baseman because he's being paid $4.5 million. I can certainly buy the idea that he's a better hitter than Randy Ruiz, and one of the same general type. So, if Snider returned, I would be content if Thames simply went back to the minors and Encarnacion got work as a DH/occasional 1B against LHP subbing in for Lind, Lewis, Overbay and Snider alternately. I figure that as a first baseman, he would be no worse than Ruiz.

Thomas - Monday, May 17 2010 @ 05:50 PM EDT (#215202) #

Thames has an OPS under .500 in his last ten games. I'm quite high on him, but an .860 OPS that includes a recent slump doesn't scream for a two-level promotion, in my opinion. If this situation occurred in July and Thames' OPS was hovering in the low .900s I'd be much more in favour of the plan. However, I'm probably on the more conservative side when it comes to promotions.

As for Encarnacion, I agree that it would be nice not to see him air-mailing throws every other day from third or upsetting the good thing that Toronto has going right now. I'm sure he'll get some playing time with Snider out, but hopefully he becomes more of a bit player after that.

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