What Is It Good For?

The results of baseball’s Hall-of-Fame voting will be announced tomorrow, which must’ve prompted three sportswriters for the Tribune to beat the rush and disclose their votes in today’s paper.  They shouldn’t have bothered.

The good news is none of them voted for anyone from the PEDs crowd: Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Sheffield or Sosa.  That last one is particularly gratifying, especially given how Slammin’ Sammy always had his way with the Chicago media in his playing days.  When it comes to clarity, better late than never, I guess.

That said, I have to wonder if these guys watch the same sport I do.  Larry Walker got two votes while Todd Helton and Scott Rolen picked up one apiece.  Paul Konerko got zero votes, with one sportswriter explaining he “really wanted to” before deciding Konerko belongs in the “Hall of Very Good,” alongside Mark Grace and Don Baylor.  Why only very good?  In part because Konerko had a career WAR of 27.7 vs. 46.7 for Mike Cameron, who the Sox traded to the Reds for Konerko in the offseason of 1998.

Will someone please explain WAR to me again?  Konerko amassed 2340 hits; a .279 BA; 439 homeruns; 1162 runs scored; and 1412 RBIs.  Compare those numbers to Cameron: 1700 hits; .249 BA; 278 homers; 1064 runs scored; and 968 RBIs.  Konerko was named an All-Star six times to once for Cameron.  Do Cameron’s three Gold Gloves explain the difference?

Now, consider Walker.  If you knew nothing about him, and I told you he had a seventeen-year career with three batting titles and three Silver Slugger awards (to go with seven Gold Gloves), you might think he had monster stats to explain that 72.7 WAR, yes?  Yet, outside of a .313 career BA, Walker’s stats aren’t all that impressive.  Konerko has more homers and RBIs, Walker more runs scored.  Oh, and did I mention Walker spent 9-1/2 seasons in the hitter-friendly—no, hitter-crazy—thin air of Colorado?

Konerko played eighteen seasons, one more than Cameron, Walker and Todd Helton, who spent his entire career with Colorado (see above).  Seventeen years in Colorado, and Konerko still ended up with six more career RBIs.  Maybe the three Gold Gloves at first base along with the four Silver Slugger awards explain Helton’s 61.2 WAR.  Konerko has 17 postseason RBIs vs. four for Helton and fifteen for Walker.  There must be a penalty involved when factoring postseason performance into WAR.

Rolen is yet another seventeen-year veterans.  His 70.2 WAR is the product of 2077 hits; 316 homers; 1211 runs; and 1287 RBIs.  He has eight Gold Gloves to go with twelve postseason RBIs.   And that’s different from Robin Ventura how, exactly?

Numbers alone don’t tell the story, or so I believe.  Weighing everything as carefully as I can, I can’t help but come away wondering—WAR, what is it good for?  Absolutely nothing.