WAR has always been a flawed stat designed from the beginning to find the answers that were wanted. It starts off with a bunch of assumptions that fall apart so much people have to say "Well, it's only good for comparing players who play the same position" even though a positional adjustment is one of the whole points for this. It then throws in defense without adjusting for how little defense matters at some positions.

It is an easily digestible stat for internet arguments and sports radio because it puts a number value on a player so you can say "No, Player X is better because he has a WAR of 3.1 and Player Y has a WAR of 2.0!" without having to think about anything else in that equation.

Laurence Holmes is a fucking weirdo, a nerd in denial, and a wannabe. Not a very good radio host either.

Worthless stat

That being the case, who is the top WAR player this year that you think is having a shitty season?

Bully Hendry would have signed Harper for 2.5 Billion over 30 years

Batting Average for Balls In Play.

Even though "batting" is in the title, it's really a pitching stat. The theory is that a pitcher can only control three outcomes: strikeouts, walks, and home runs. All other balls that are put in play are considered good luck (out) or bad luck (hit) and not a function of a pitcher's skill. This is because someone discovered that all pitchers at the MLB level seem to have about the same BABIP. Assuming that's true, then all you would need to do to judge a pitcher is look at his strikeouts, walks, and home runs against. You can also look at a pitcher's recent BABIP to see if he's been lucky (his BABIP is lower than average), or unlucky (BABIP higher than average) because over time it should come back to the average.

Of course, many disagree with the notion that a pitcher has no effect on whether a ball in play is a hit or out. Some pitchers would seem to be good enough to induce weak contact, while others get pounded.

BABIP doesn't work as well as a metric for batters, in that there is more variability depending on the hitting style. For example, Ichiro had a very high BABIP because of the many infield hits he had.

Bully Hendry would have signed Harper for 2.5 Billion over 30 years

i think there's more examples of players havin' good seasons who have a shitty WAR.

Take Harper for example. His WAR today (post-Grand Slam) is 2.3. Dude's got 26 HR and 90 RBI or some shit. OPS way over .900, including OBP of .374.
Yet he's only 2 or 3 more wins valuable than an average replacement? Before yesterday, that woulda been 1.3.

I aint high on Harper or anything but the WAR just seems low.

He's also going to strike out around 220 times. When the season is over he's likely to have a WAR of around 4 for the year which will be a good description of the kind of year he is having.

Bully Hendry would have signed Harper for 2.5 Billion over 30 years

it's theoretical wins, like Bitcoin