2013 - Year of the DWar

[Controller Jacobs]

Top 10 single season DWars of all time, per B-R

1. Andrelton Simmons (23) 5.4 2013 R
Terry Turner (25) 5.4 1906 R

3. Art Fletcher (32) 5.1 1917 R
4. Mark Belanger (31) 4.9 1975 R
5. Ozzie Smith+ (34) 4.7 1989 B
6. Carlos Gomez (27) 4.6 2013 R
7. Brooks Robinson+ (31) 4.5 1968 R
8. Mark Belanger (24) 4.4 1968 R
Frankie Frisch+ (28) 4.4 1927 B
Manny Machado (20) 4.4 2013 R

Their calculation apparently changed in 2003:
Based on Baseball Info Solutions defensive runs saved from 2003 on and total zone rating developed by Sean Smith of BaseballProjection.com previously

[onejayhawk]

Dayum.

J

[Judge Jude]

whatever one thinks of new metrics, it's nice to see that players whose skills were resoundingly obvious - Belanger, Brooks, and Ozzie among them - show up on these lists....

[Don Quixote]

It should be pointed out that for all these individual "heroics", only two of the ten were on teams that made the post-season.

I'm not sure what DWar even is, but it strikes me as a tool the more sabermetric types use to justify a preconceived notion. Very infield-heavy.

[bryanbutler]

It should be pointed out that for all these individual "heroics", only two of the ten were on teams that made the post-season.

why would that even matter? that's like saying a good hitter or pitcher's season doesn't matter if they don't make the playoffs.

I'm not sure what DWar even is, but it strikes me as a tool the more sabermetric types use to justify a preconceived notion. Very infield-heavy.

it's the defensive version of WAR - Wins Above Replacement. it's a measure of how good a player is defensively. you can argue about the specifics of it, but it's certainly better than fielding percentage.

it's weighted to infielders (specifically, *non-1B* infielders) because it's recognized that those positions are harder to field than the others. there's a whole body of literature on this point...