I dont post on the main board much as ya'll are way smarter than me. But if JD is in the running to win the triple crown, how is he ~3ish WAR behind? Does WAR not care much about RBI and HR? Does Mookie's fielding get him that much?
Yes this is basic to a lot of you all but I appreciate the insight.
Yeah, what Byrd said. Purely at the plate, mookie and JD have been about as valuable as each other. Then mookie is a great defensive RFer while JD is a DH or a buther in the OF plus mookie’s value as a baserunner.
And no, RBI aren’t relevant.
Numbers - JD has been worth 56 runs at the plate, Mookie 57. Mookie’s been better on a per plate appearance level - 33 more OBP points to only 7 SLG fewer points. Doubles, homers, singles and walks make up for the homer differential - JDs higher PA catch him up in overall value.
Then Mookie’s worth positive 5 runs on the bases and JD negative 2 runs.
Another 3 runs different in their GDP tendencies.
And mookie is worth 15 runs better than the average player on defense (19 runs better than the average RF, RF is worth 4 runs fewer than average position) and JD is worth negative 16 runs (6 runs below average when in the OF, his combination of corner OF and DH with 10 runs fewer than the average position).
Add all that up and mookie has been worth 78 runs better than the average player. His playing time means you add 19 runs to get to a replacement level metric - 97 runs above replacement, or 9.8 WAR.
JD adds up to 37 runs above average, plus 21 runs for replacement level, and he has 58 runs above replacement or 5.9 WAR.