From 2007 to 2012 Matt Cain racked up 26 bWAR, or about 4.3 bWAR per season. FanGraphs rates the same period 23 WAR, or 3.8 fWAR per season. I think we can safely say Matt Cain embodied the 4-WAR pitcher during that span. Roughly, a 5-WAR pitcher is an All-Star. Matty's 6.1 in 2009 was his bWAR peak, his 4.6 in 2011 was his fWAR peak.
Madison Bumgarner, from 2013 to 2017, was worth 16-18 WAR or about 4.0-4.5 per season.
Tim Lincecum's two Cy Young seasons, 2008 and 2009, are rated 7.8 and 7.4 bWAR and 7.1 and 7.6 fWAR. When you get to 6+ WAR you are among the league elites.
Another fine season? Johnny Cueto's 2016 rated 5.5 bWAR and 4.9 fWAR.
A major-league starter, a regular rotation member, is a 2+ WAR player. A quality reliever can contribute about 1.0 WAR and sometimes more.
Last year FanGraphs said Bum was our best guy (3.2 WAR) and Smardj our second-best (1.5 WAR), Baseball-Reference reversed them, with Smardj at 2.9 WAR and Bum at 2.8 WAR.
FanGraphs version (fWAR) is based on a pitching metric called FIP or Fielding Independent Pitching. FIP grew out of some research by a fella with the spectacular moniker of Voros McCracken. We'll talk about FIP later, it is a very useful way to look at pitching.
--M.C.
4 comments:
Back at the end of November, I posted about the pitching staff using WAR from Baseball Reference. Had we gotten equivalent WAR from our young staff rather than a regression, and those numbers translated into actual wins, the Giants would have been a .500 team.
Well D-Rod for sure, and Suarez too, but Holland (vet) as well. It wasn't just the youngsters. Pomeranz got a bunch of starts as well before they jettisoned him.
Gausman, a healthy Cueto, maybe they can be a little more stable this year. Tyler Anderson might be a bounceback candidate. Beede is still intriguing. I suspect Shaun Anderson is in for the ride of his life. Opener, spot starter, closer, you-name-it.
they would be a lot more stable this year if they still had Bumgarner.
Sure, but he wanted to be somewhere else.
Giants pick up Brandon Guyer, a versatile RH outfielder who gets on base but not much pop. He has a big platoon split and kills lefties. His claim to fame is leading the AL in HBP two seasons in a row with 24 and 31 in '15 and '16.
In '16 he was traded to the Indians from the Rays and he picked up 8 HBP in a 38-game span (96 PA). That's one HBP every 12 plate appearances! That's some mad skills, brah!
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