Following up on our recent discussion of the most underrated players in baseball, a few of us BtB'ers thought a value breakdown graph of some top Phillies hitters might be in order. After all, it was Chase Utley who topped the "underrated" list (tied with Shin-Soo Choo). We stat geeks often like to put him on a pedestal above one of his more overrated teammates. This graph provides me an opportunity do that without saying a word—just providing numbers. Or a picture. Or... you know what I mean.
A few casual observations:
- Wow, who knew Ryan Howard was a plus defender? Not I.
- I expect to be called names for having Jayson Werth's bat displaying as being, well... werth more than Ryan Howard's.
- Chase Utley and Shane Victorino have that Alan Trammell-esque "I'm above average at everything I do" thing going for them. Utley also happens to be an elite hitter as well.
- Jimmy Rollins is essentially a league average player with a positional adjustment tacked on. But an average player who plays shortstop is actually quite valuable.
Anything I missed?
(All data from Rally's WAR database — which is now on Baseball-Reference!)
Update: I did miss something! Per Sky's comment, total runs are:
- Howard: 36 runs above average
- Utley: 121 runs above average
- Rollins: 21 runs above average
- Victorino: 38 runs above average
- Werth: 50 runs above average
There may be some slight inconsistencies with the graph above since B-R has an extra day of data now.
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