With Pitchers Hit Eighth “reborn” in a sense here at the Conclave, I thought I’d bring back a feature I always loved writing but fell by the wayside. (Which is a shame, because it’s fun, interesting, and as importantly – easy to do.)
Welcome to WAR Graph Wednesday of Pitchers Hit Eighth (at the Conclave). See what I did there? Eat your heart out, Arte Moreno.
The basic gist of a WAR Graph (courtesy FanGraphs) is to compare two or more players to each other based on career WAR – and then by showing them from best year to worst year, how they accumulated WAR over the length of their career from rookie to retire, and then season WAR by age.
Admittedly, this first one is really silly, but gets my point across. My point is exactly what I typed as a title for this post – Carlos Beltran is hotter than the Sun. As evidenced from his splits at Baseball Reference:
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | tOPS+ | sOPS+ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 Totals | 64 | 60 | 263 | 248 | 37 | 77 | 7 | 1 | 17 | 45 | 13 | 44 | .310 | .346 | .552 | .898 | 100 | 147 |
| Last 7 days | 6 | 6 | 26 | 24 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | .375 | .423 | .875 | 1.298 | 181 | 271 |
| Last 14 days | 10 | 10 | 45 | 42 | 10 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 8 | .333 | .356 | .714 | 1.070 | 132 | 200 |
| Last 28 days | 20 | 20 | 91 | 84 | 17 | 27 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 5 | 15 | .321 | .363 | .619 | .982 | 117 | 172 |
He’s getting better in the last seven days, but has been scorching for the better part of June a month this season.
That being said, this isn’t Carlos Beltran Spreadsheet Wednesday, so on to the fun part.
WAR Graphs say Carlos Beltran is indeed hotter than the Sun. Sun Daly, a one-time left fielder for the Baltimore (NL) Orioles, logged forty-nine plate appearances in 1892.
Source: FanGraphs — Carlos Beltran, Sun Daly
So, there’s Carlos in all his Nth year glory – where’s Sun? Let’s look for him on the next chart.
Source: FanGraphs — Carlos Beltran, Sun Daly
Carlos is getting into rarefied air in career WAR – closing in on 70 total for his sixteen seasons in MLB. Sun Daly is, well, setting.
Source: FanGraphs — Carlos Beltran, Sun Daly
Ok, it’s a poorly executed joke. Sun Daly posted a 0.599 OPS in his 49 plate appearances in 1892, good for -0.1 WAR, which only registers on the graphs when you roll over the appropriate dot. You’ll see such representation at age 27, which was Sun Daly’s rookie and final season.
Like I said, a little silly to start, but stay tuned on Wednesday afternoons for more WAR Graphs – thanks FanGraphs!
