How Does Brooks Robinson Have 2-Star Player Potential?

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

I used fWAR to figure out which players should be playing in which years, which of course includes defense. I did notice that many average defenders or defense-first players show lower, sometimes much lower, WAR in OOTP than in FanGraphs, whereas guys with only hit tools, like Frank Thomas and Miguel Cabrera, show much higher WAR in OOTP, which seems to track with what you say.

Sounds to me like you might be implying that the 80 fWAR I relied on to bring Brooks Robinson on board my team will probably be a better indication of how he will perform, across the 14 seasons I am using him, than the 19.9 WAR on the OOTP card I am seeing right now, here in his first season. Would that be fair to conclude?

Yeah, that's the goal. Obviously won't guarantee that to happen, since there are still some cases where the historical importer won't match entirely with the defensive values you see on other places. But hopefully should be closer.

[chucksabr]

By the way, talk about being handed a bum steer on some players, if we're talking only about WAR:

I've wanted to rely on first baseman Bill Phillips for my first few years until Tony Perez is ready to take over there. FanGraphs says he's a 15-win player. My game says he's worth four. In this, his second season, he slashed .151/.170/.226 in his first 100 plate trips before I sent him packing to the reserve roster.

I also have Ezra Sutton to be a backup third baseman. FanGraphs has him as a 31-win player; my game has him at 12. He's "batting" .185/.214/.358 so far in his second year.

On the other hand, Dots Miller is a 20-win player in real life; my game has him at 4.4. His first season he batted .243/.309/.452 with 27 bombs as a regular, and he's slashing a respectable .274/.308/.500 as a backup so far in 67 plate trips.

So, I guess a historical online league really can be a box of chocolates, can't it?