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Negative Team WAR - 2009 Edition

"Come on Jose, we all know you suck, but you are scamming 12 mill a year.  You could be getting paid what your worth."

More photos » Charlie Riedel - AP

"Come on Jose, we all know you suck, but you are scamming 12 mill a year. You could be getting paid what your worth."

A few months ago I looked at the negative WAR teams accumulated from 2004 to 2008. Since the 2009 season is over, it is time to look at how teams did this year at limiting the amount of negative WAR players on the field. If a player played for two teams this last season, I only took the partial seasons that were negative. Fangraphs only has combined WAR, so if a player had a negative value for one team and larger positive value for another I did not find these instances. My final numbers might be a little less negative than they should be because of this limitation. Here are the results with comments and table of exact values after the jump:

2009war_medium

Star-divide

  Hitting/Fielding Pitching Total
Padres -3.8 -6.8 -10.6
Royals -7.3 -1.0 -8.3
Nationals -1.9 -4.5 -6.4
Brewers -1.0 -4.4 -5.4
Astros -2.6 -2.6 -5.2
Indians -2.5 -2.6 -5.1
Cubs -3.6 -1.3 -4.9
Orioles -1.9 -2.9 -4.8
Braves -3.9 -0.8 -4.7
Mets -2.6 -1.9 -4.5
Mariners -2.7 -1.6 -4.3
Diamondbacks -3.1 -1.1 -4.2
Angels -3.3 -0.8 -4.1
Athletics -3.5 -0.6 -4.1
Pirates -1.7 -2.3 -4.0
Cardinals -2.6 -1.3 -3.9
Twins -3.2 -0.6 -3.8
Reds -1.1 -2.4 -3.5
Phillies -1.3 -2.1 -3.4
White Sox -2.9 -0.3 -3.2
Yankees -1.4 -1.6 -3.0
Blue Jays -1.5 -1.5 -3.0
Giants -2.1 -0.8 -2.9
Tigers -1.8 -1.0 -2.8
Rangers -1.5 -1.2 -2.7
Rays -1.5 -1.0 -2.5
Marlins -0.7 -1.5 -2.2
Dodgers -0.7 -1.1 -1.8
Red Sox -0.9 -0.6 -1.5
Rockies -0.9 -0.3 -1.2

Thoughts:

  1. The Padres' lack of leadership, because of the team changing hands, could easily have been a major cause of their numbers.
  2. The Royals don't have have the excuse of the Padres; Dayton Moore just doesn't know how to evaluate position players.  The Royals' Jose Guillen  was the ML leader in negative WAR with -2.0. His personal total was worse than the position player total for half the teams.
  3. The negative WAR of the Padre pitching and Royals hitting were each more than the total of any other team.
  4. I know some people considered the Rockies lucky to make the playoffs this year, but giving up only 1.2 wins probably helped.
  5. The most negative WAR accumulated by playoff team was 4.1 WAR by the Angels.  The three smallest scores (Dodgers, Red Sox and Rockies) all made the playoffs.

0 recs  |  Comment 19 comments |

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Tony Pena, Jr.

.098/.132/.118 in 53 PA. Absolutely incredible.

by Tommy Bennett on Nov 3, 2009 12:42 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

More of the problem is the line from the DH position: .209/.281/.374

The SS position was also horrible: .222/.251/.319

Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.

by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Nov 3, 2009 9:10 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Twins and Cards the most Negative WAR for playoff teams

Pujols and Mauer will make up for a lot of Alexi Casillas and Khalil Greenes.

by lookatthosetwins on Nov 3, 2009 2:08 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Look a little higher on that list

The Angels had the most negative WAR of a playoff team.

by ptizzy on Nov 3, 2009 12:46 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Gary Matthews, Jr. will be along any moment to accept his award for least supporting actor in a playoff franchise.

the truth can't hurt you, it's just like the dark/ it scares you witless, but in time you see things clear and stark -- macmanus

by tom s. on Nov 3, 2009 6:14 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Pretty happy with the Marlins low negative WAR

But it didn’t feel that way with them starting Bonifacio 2/3 of the season.

by SFiercex4 on Nov 3, 2009 8:48 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

"if a player had a negative value for one team and a larger positive value for another, i did not find these instances"

Maybe I don’t understand exactly what you mean, but if you go to each individual team’s value tab rather than each player’s page, it shows his value contribution only to that team

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on Nov 3, 2009 10:36 AM EST via mobile reply actions   0 recs

anyone who actually thinks the Rockies lucked their way into the postseason

clearly wasn’t watching the team at all.

Hope got in my eyes

by Andrew Martin on Nov 3, 2009 10:53 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

i realize i didnt really follow rox coverage outside of CO

But I don’t recall reading or hearing that anywhere. Other than rotation injuries, there was very little luck to be seen

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on Nov 3, 2009 11:05 AM EST via mobile up reply actions   0 recs

When you say "some people considered the Rockies lucky to make the playoffs"

Who are you referring to?

I'm still hoping to wake up from that nightmare I had about the 9th inning of Game 4.

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Nov 3, 2009 11:50 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

The person was MGL at the book Blog

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/what_are_the_chances_that_the_nats_win_the_world_series_if_they_were_alread/#3

Read the comments starting with #3 and going to #9

Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.

by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Nov 4, 2009 12:52 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Am I missing something?

Comment #3 says: “Heck, the Rockies are not a very good team.” and the next comment refutes it with at least as much strength. The rest don’t even address Colorado, and the word “lucky” doesn’t appear at all…

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on Nov 4, 2009 11:38 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Apparently we both missed that boat

I'm still hoping to wake up from that nightmare I had about the 9th inning of Game 4.

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Nov 4, 2009 7:34 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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