Baseball Gauge – Introducing our new version of Wins Above Replacement

In celebration of the new season, Seamheads.com and The Baseball Gauge are proud to announce our new Wins Above Replacement. The updated calculation has two major changes from our previous system.

The first upgrade is our Fielding system, which now uses Runs Saved from Michael Humphreys Defensive Regression Analysis. This allows us to compare and evaluate fielders from all eras of Baseball history and accurately place a value on their performance. To find out more about DRA, check out his book Wizardry and/or take a look at the DRA series at The Hardball Times. Humphreys also provides an extremely informative appendix , describing the method.

Not only does this new fielding system allow us to evaluate defensive ability, it also helps us estimate how a team’s defense helps or hurts its pitching staff.

Previously, our Pitching WAR was DIPS based (Defense Independent Pitching) and because of that, it did not have the ability to measure a pitcher’s ability to control the running game and preventing extra base hits, along with other skills. We now take each pitcher’s runs allowed and then adjust for Defense, Bullpen, and Ballpark to determine the pitcher’s value.

For more information on our new Wins Above Replacement, please take a look at the glossary , which describes the calculation in more detail.

Just as before, the user has the ability to view these numbers in a large variety of different ways. For example, there are “All-Time Teams,” where you can view the best players from different eras, decades, seasons, countries, states, universities, and high schools. These new WAR totals are also used in analysis of Amateur Drafts, transactions, awards, hall of fame voting, and expansion/rule 5 drafts.

Also, as we have done in the previous two seasons, we will be updating the site on a daily basis during the 2012 regular season. Enjoy!