Win Shares Player Comments

Following is a series of player comments compiled by Pete.

Player		HitWS	FieldWS	PitchWS	TotalWS	WS	POS
H Almonte	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0	P
R Alomar	8.16	3.25	0.00	11.41	11	2B
J Anderson	0.00	0.00	0.87	0.87	1	P
A Benes		0.00	0.00	0.97	0.97	1	P
A Benitez	0.00	0.00	10.05	10.05	10	P
A Bernero	0.00	0.00	1.96	1.96	2	P
A Boone		12.88	5.71	0.00	18.59	19	3B
B Chen		0.00	0.00	0.33	0.33	0	P
J Clark		0.00	0.07	0.00	0.07	0	OF
J Conine	12.26	2.00	0.00	14.25	14	1B
D Davis		0.00	0.00	5.71	5.71	5	P
W Delgado	0.74	0.76	0.00	1.50	1	SS
D Dellucci	2.31	1.49	0.00	3.79	4	OF
C Fox		0.00	0.00	2.57	2.57	2	P
D Glanville	0.05	1.41	0.00	1.46	1	OF
J Guillen	17.28	1.65	0.00	18.92	19	OF
A Harang	0.00	0.00	1.63	1.63	2	P
R Helling	0.00	0.00	3.76	3.76	4	P
F Heredia	0.00	0.00	7.27	7.27	8	P
S Hillenbrand	6.17	2.66	0.00	8.83	9	P
S Hitchcock	0.00	0.00	3.46	3.46	3	P
D Jimenez	10.32	4.35	0.00	14.67	14	2B
T Jones		0.00	0.00	0.74	0.74	1	P
G Kapler	2.47	0.72	0.00	3.19	3	OF
B Kim		0.00	0.00	11.16	11.16	11	P
C Leskanic	0.00	0.00	6.86	6.86	7	P
J Liefer	1.04	0.34	0.00	1.38	1	3B
G Lloyd		0.00	0.00	2.42	2.42	2	P
J Lugo		6.12	4.90	0.00	11.02	11	SS
G Matthews	6.77	1.54	0.00	8.31	9	OF
L Merloni	3.59	1.25	0.00	4.84	5	3B
D Miceli	0.00	0.00	4.97	4.97	6	P
R Mondesi	7.25	2.01	0.00	9.26	10	OF
D Moss		0.00	0.00	5.65	5.65	6	P
S Mullen	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0	P
J Orosco	0.00	0.00	0.16	0.16	0	P
B Petrick	0.39	0.53	0.00	0.91	1	P
S Ponson	0.00	0.00	15.51	15.51	16	P
B Prinz		0.00	0.00	0.17	0.17	0	P
A Sanchez	4.06	2.97	0.00	7.03	7	OF
R Sanchez	2.55	3.92	0.00	6.47	6	SS
S Sauerbeck	0.00	0.00	3.21	3.21	3	P
S Service	0.00	0.00	1.85	1.85	2	P
S Sullivan	0.00	0.00	4.67	4.67	5	P
J Suppan	0.23	0.00	12.07	12.30	12	P
U Urbina	0.00	0.00	10.82	10.82	10	P
T Van Poppel	0.00	0.00	0.07	0.07	0	P
R Ventura	7.01	3.80	0.00	10.81	11	3B
G White		0.00	0.00	2.96	2.96	3	P
Ri White	0.00	0.00	1.07	1.07	1	P
Ro White	11.08	1.37	0.00	12.45	12	OF
S Williamson	0.00	0.00	7.99	7.99	8	P
E Yan		0.30	0.00	0.44	0.74	1	P
T Zeile		2.68	2.01	0.00	4.69	5	3B

Craig Biggio
See Andruw Jones.

Steve Finley
See Andruw Jones.

Livan Hernandez
Livan Hernandez is the fourth best pitcher in the National League? It's not as ridiculous as it may appear when looking at his statistics (12-7, 3.20). There are three contributing factors here. The first is the park factor, which Win Shares adjusts for before taking ERA into account. Montreal/San Juan has played as an extreme hitter's park this year (10.36 runs/game at home; 7.72 runs/game on the road).

The second factor is Hernandez's high number of innings pitched (169 IP, currently third in the National League). Win Shares is a counting, not a rate, statistic. The third factor is Hernandez's hitting (4 runs created in 59 plate appearances -- sub-marginal, but barely). Win Shares deducts pitching claim points from pitchers who hit at a sub-marginal level. Therefore, pitchers who are abysmal hitters (Odalis Perez - 45 outs in 44 plate appearances!) can lose as many as 8 claim points, corresponding to approximately 2 win shares. Hernandez loses less than 1 claim point for his hitting.

Cesar Izturis

Top 10 players, percentage of value coming from defense (minimum 5 win shares):

Brad Ausmus	100%
Cesar Izturis	97%
Miguel Olivo	83%
Michael Barrett	75%
Alex Cora	74%
Brian Schneider	72%
Alex Gonzalez (Cubs)	72%
Cristian Guzman	69%
Brent Mayne	68%
Neifi Perez	68%

Andruw Jones

According to win shares, the top three defensive outfielders in the National League are Steve Finley, Andruw Jones, and Craig Biggio. According to STATS' Zone Rating, the worst three defensive centerfielders in Major League Baseball are Steve Finley, Craig Biggio, and Andruw Jones. Obviously, something is screwy here. My guess is that the zone ratings are incorrect. (Andruw Jones is last? Where are all those balls landing?)

There is no similar problem in the American League, where the top three defensive outfielders (Mike Cameron, Carlos Beltran, and Torii Hunter) are third, first, and fourth in Zone Rating, respectively.

Mike Lieberthal
The Phillies' catcher's win shares are an anomaly - if this were to continue for the rest of the season, it would be only the sixth time in history that a position on a team received zero win shares (according to Bill James in Win Shares).

The defensive win shares system first assigns win shares to each position on a team, and only then credits the individual players. If there are zero win shares assigned to a position, then the individual players at that position each get zero win shares.

The win shares system for assigning win shares to positions uses a series of four scales at each position. Those scales are then summed to get the claim percentage for that position. The scales are all relative to the league, so that the average claim percentage (for the league) at each position is .500.

To give more credit to good defensive players on the team, .200 is deducted from each position's claim percentage to get the adjusted claim percentage. The adjusted claim percentage for a position is later multiplied by the intrinsic weight for that position to calculate the win shares for the position. Thus, if a given position has a claim percentage of less than .200, that position gets zero win shares.

The first scale, worth a potential .500, is CS% relative to the league as a whole. For some reason, the CS% of both of the Phillies' catchers are way down this year. They've allowed 92 SB, with only 15 CS, for a 14.0% CS percentage. (Kevin Millwood is a contributing factor - he's allowed 39 SB, with only 3 CS. But the other pitchers haven't been that much better - 53 SB, with only 12 CS.) The league CS% is 31.9%. Thus, on this important scale, the Phillies catchers receive zero points.

The second scale, worth a potential .300, is catcher fielding percentage relative to the league as a whole. Here, catchers' putouts from strikeouts are deducted before determining fielding percentage. The Phillies catchers have 25 non-K PO, 36 A, and 8 errors, for a fielding % of .884. The league fielding % for catchers is .919. On this scale, the Phillies catchers receive .085 points.

The third and fourth scales are relatively unimportant for catchers. On the third scale, worth .100, (essentially) passed balls relative to the league, Phillies catchers receive .373 points. On the fourth scale, worth .100, (essentially) sacrifice hits allowed relative to the league, Phillies catchers receive .040 points.

Summing it all up, the claim percentage for the Phillies catchers is only .163. As this is below .200, the Phillies catchers are credited with zero win shares for their defense at that position. Todd Pratt, however, gets a little credit for playing 17 innings at first base.

Edgar Martinez

Top 10 players, percentage of value coming from offense (minimum 10 win shares):

Edgar Martinez	100%
Erubiel Durazo	98%
Frank Thomas	97%
Albert Pujols	96%
Carlos Delgado	95%
Robert Fick	95%
Rafael Palmeiro	95%
Mike Sweeney	94%
Cliff Floyd	94%
Jason Giambi	94%

Todd Pratt
See Mike Lieberthal.

Dontrelle Willis

Top 10 rookies:

Hideki Matsui	14.47
Brandon Webb	13.62
Angel Berroa	12.49
Ty Wigginton	12.10
Dontrelle Willis	11.28
Rocco Baldelli	11.21
Scott Podsednik	10.29
Marlon Byrd	10.11
Jason Phillips	9.89
Mark Teixeira	9.28