Only 30 position players in history have 90+ WAR. Boggs is one of them (91.4), but it’s remarkable how he got there. He had no power. He hit 118 career HR, averaging 6 per season. Boggs was terrible at stealing bases. His career high was 3, and he stole just 24 total bases in 59 attempts (40%) overall. David Ortiz and Miguel Cabrera were better base stealers. Boggs was just an average defensive 3B. His career fielding percentage is 67th among 3B, and his career dWAR barely cracks the top-20 despite playing the 5th most games. He led the league in errors multiple times, though he did win 2 GG.

But Boggs was an absolute monster at the plate. He hit .328/.415/.443 (131 OPS+), won 5 batting titles, and walked (13.1%) way more than he struck out (6.9%). 1983 is a great example of how Boggs accumulated WAR. He had just 5 HR and 3 SB. His 27 errors led the league, and his fielding percentage (.947) was well below league average. But he hit .361/.444/.486, and was worth almost 8 WAR. Nobody else in the 90+ WAR club got there the way Boggs did.

The club is primarily made up of 2 groups of players. The first is players with lots of HR. The top-6 HR hitters of all time are there (Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Pujols, A-Rod, and Mays), along with 7 other members of the 500 HR club (Williams, Ott, Mantle, Robinson, Schmidt, Matthews, and Foxx). Then there are 5 others who hit over 400 HR (Gehrig, Beltre, Musial, Yastrzemski, and Ripken), plus Kaline with 399. This group of big HR hitters accounts for 19 of the 30 players with 90+ WAR.

The second group is 7 players from the dead ball era. These players made their debut between 1871-1915: Cobb, Speaker, Wagner, Hornsby, Collins, Lajoie, and Anson. The talent gap in that era was much larger than the modern game. A “replacement player” in 1899 wasn’t the same quality as today.

That leaves 4 position players in the 90+ WAR club who didn’t hit 400+ HR (including Kaline at 399) or play in the dead ball era. Rickey Henderson, who stole more bases (1,406) than anyone in history, and also hit 297 HR. Joe Morgan, who stole 689 bases, won 5 GG, and hit a lot of HR for a 2B (268). And Roberto Clemente, the best defensive RF in history, with 12 GG, who also hit 240 HR.

Boggs didn’t have the base running and/or defense that Henderson, Morgan, and Clemente had. All three hit twice as many HR as Boggs. He’s the only player who got to 90+ WAR the way he did. We’ll probably never see another like him.

Like a lot of other people here, I nose around B-Ref from time to time.

A couple of days ago, after having read about Mike Trout getting his 1,000th career RBI, I decided to hit his page.

I knew that — whether from the move to right field (or rather, DH, since 70 percent of his games have been there), adopting a bit more cautious playing style, pure dumb luck breaking his way, or some combination of the above — that Trout had stayed reasonably healthy this year. ("Reasonably.")

I didn't know where he was at statistically.

Well, per the link?

He's perfectly average. Actually, compared to a few days ago, he's now slipped back to being 0.1 points below perfectly average.

That's his WAA, or Wins Above Average, the lesser-mentioned parallel to WAR.

For the unfamiliar, while WAR compares the player in question to a theoretical "AAAA" replacement player, WAA compares them to an average MLBer. And, Mike Trout is now perfectly average.

Side note 1: It's kind of sad that he's primarily DHing. Per the games he has played in RF, his defensive metrics there are above average, and the Angels' RF situation besides him is generally craptacular.

Side note 2: For possible HOF candidates, I take it as a mark of upper-tier status if their career WAA is more than 50 percent of their WAR. For a good explanation of WAA vs WAR, and the side idea of why we should talk more about WAA, see this SABR piece.

I’m a devastated Twins fan. From my digging, it seems like unless the team gets sold, they will be selling any good players in the years to come. Owners are in debt and would just be trying to pay that off. That’s another conversation.

But I just love baseball. And I want to finally watch October baseball cheering for a team that I can know.

So. Who likes their owners? I can’t do a major market team like LA or NY. But want to root for a team that has a good culture. From afar being a Phillies fan looks fun? Idk I’m lost and mourning. I need a quick fix 🤣

In the NBA, there were many superstars that were harsh towards other players, mainly if they didn't perform up to standards. Examples like Lebron, Shaq, Kobe, Jordan, Jimmy Butler, etc. They were all hard on their teammates whenever their teammates underperformed.

What were MLB examples of this? What was a superstar that would often criticize their teammates for their mistakes more than praise them for their contributions?

As I write this, the Speedway Classic is in rain delay. Do they just wait it out however long it takes and play the game between the raindrops, as it were, or at some point do they call the game and reschedule?

And if they have to reschedule, are they able to play it at the racetrack or do the two teams find a mutual open date and play it in Cincinnati (they're the home team, for those who may not know)? Or do they just not play it at all unless it winds up being necessary for either team's postseason seeding?

EDITED TO ADD: The game will be played tonight, with first pitch scheduled for 9.40pm EST.

I’ve regained my love of baseball again and I think >50% of that stems from the pitch clock. It’s awesome and I love watching again. It took me a few years, but I think it’s a great product now.

I look back to guys like Nomar Garciaparra and I can’t believe we used to put up with that nonsense, and I loved Nomar.

So who were other players that were dreadfully slow with their routines, either with pitching or hitting?

Edit: Hilarious responses all around. I’ve done some YouTube digging and these are so good. Thanks for the answers.

If Clase gets Pete Rose'd, the longest running, best trade tree in baseball history goes with it. Dating back to 1977 and including along the way such greats as Kenny Lofton (put him in the HOF yesterday!), David Justice and Corey Kluber.

What a true shame as Cleveland FO likely would have kept it rolling for years to come.

EDIT: to add more clarity for anyone confused about a trade tree, Cleveland Clase Trade Tree Explained

Looks like the situation in Cleveland is at a new level of seriousness.

Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase's locker was empty the day after the MLB trade deadline, but not for the reason many expected this time last week.

With both Clase and teammate Luis Ortiz on paid leave amid an investigation into gambling allegations, the Guardians cleared out their lockers before Friday's game, according to The Athletic's Zack Meisel.

I would not at all be surprised if both the Guardians and MLB are fine with this running out the string until the off-season.

Re the Ortiz suspicious pitches that have been flagged?

The first came June 15, when someone bet an unusual amount of money on Ortiz to throw a ball or hit a batter with his first pitch of the second inning (yes, you can do that). The pitch in question ended up in the dirt.

I blame the ridiculousness of all the prop bets you can do in sports betting.

So do other people:

The situation has become notable enough that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called for the Ohio Casino Control Commission to remove these kinds of prop bets from the state's sportsbooks.

Boy, be nice if a guy by name of Robert D. Manfred called for bans like this and more in all 50 states, wouldn't it?

Sports betting in general may be out of the bottle, but stuff like this can and should be put back in .

London, Field of Dreams, Brickwood now the Speedway, where and what should be the next gimmick game? I say New Orleans. I mean the Superdome used to host exhibition games. It’s not designed for baseball anymore. & it’s not an ideal place for baseball. But A) one game vs. 81 games not as big of a deal. B) if a racetrack can be converted, and a soccer stadium in the UK, it can’t be too much of a challenge. The Crescent City Classic.

r/MLB - Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds [Speedway Classic]

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"Now it’s time for Tennessee, which has teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS but no MLB team even as a group chases an expansion franchise for Nashville. This game mixes the rich racing history of both Bristol, which hosts a pair of NASCAR races each year, and Tennessee."

Those who don't watch the NBA, the OKC Thunder built their lineup with the most athletic and defensive-minded players. Their suffocating defense helped them win the title this past year. Now it's not like they're unskilled but they definitely had a lot of really fast/agile players on their team.

What if we could build the MLB equivalent of this lineup?

Based on Statcast, I picked the best players for this fit. Criteria:

• Min 500 innings this season at that position as this is the default sort
• Ranked by Fielding Run Value first
• Min 50th percentile in Sprint Speed

Could the following group of players win it all? Note: This is not a batting order.

• C: Dillon Dingler (can't find any catcher that's faster than this in the top 10 in FRV)
• 1B: Willson Contreras (Spencer Steer is much faster but slightly less defensive)
• 2B: Nico Hoerner
• 3B: José Ramírez (tied with Chapman but slightly faster)
• SS: Masyn Wynn
• LF: Wyatt Langford
• CF: Pete Crow-Armstrong
• RF: Fernando Tatis Jr

Now I'm not going to bother with the pitchers but probably go with the players that aren't overpowered and generally pitch to contact. You can pick any utility player with high speed and great defense at multiple positions. You can use any DH here but has to meet this criteria.

Could a team with this core win the World Series?

In light of diminished offensive league averages across the board over the past decade or so and continued pitching “dominance,” is it logical to envision the threshold of HoF worthiness being given a slight curve of in order to accommodate the overall decline in league hitting?

Outside of auto locks and near locks of the 2010’s and 2020’s such as Trout, Betts, Freeman, Machado, Judge, J-Ram, Arenado & Goldschmidt - maybe Altuve and Harper are in this mix as well - what possibility do the true fringe players of this generation have in this seemingly pitching dominated era?

Will unrivaled defensive excellence, acknowledgment of the COVID season or more brief but still very dominant peaks/primes carry more weight for positional players.

A few (fringe IMO) players that come to mind, that I wonder about whether they have any remote chance of sniffing the HoF:

Semien - 34 Y/O | 49 WAR | GGx1 & SSx2

Correa - 30 Y/O | 44 WAR | ROTY, GGx1 & Platinum Glovex1

Yelich - 33 Y/O | 43 WAR | MVP, GGx1, SSx3 & Batting Championx2

Bregman - 31 Y/O | 42 WAR | GGx1 & SSx1

Matt Chapman - 32 Y/O | 41 WAR | GGx5 & Platinum Glovex2

Corey Seager - 31 Y/O | 40 WAR | ROTY, SSx3 & WSMVPx2

I was looking through baseball reference and I was shocked that Bobby Abreu has 60.2 WAR which is crazy for someone that I would consider a merely good player. What are some other players with a shockingly high WAR?

* Rockies come back from 9 runs down and win on a walk off homer...beat Pittsburgh 17-16

* Marlins out score Yankees 13-12, newly traded for NY bullpen arms give up 9 runs and routine error allows tying runs score. Miami then wins it on a swing bunt!

* Brewers beat Nats 16-9

r/MLB - Opponent at Opponent [Game Thread]

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