Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Fun with Graphs: Ripken, Tejada, Jeter, Trammell

This is basically another idea stolen from Beyond the Box Score. We do that well here, but at least we cite accordingly. Anyway, after the jump is a comparison of Cal Ripken Jr., Miguel Tejada, Derek Jeter, and Alan Trammell by graphically illustrating their seperate seasons' WARP from greatest to least.

Quick response: Man, Cal was so much better than any of them and Jeter is the second coming of Trammell . . . WARP-wise.


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Ripken's peak was higher than Jeter or Trammell and his second tier seasons were about a half game higher. Miguel looks like a distant fourth. One thing to remember though about these graphs is that even though they are linked with a line . . . the data points are not directly related to the points on either side. It just looks prettier.

So discussion . . . hmmm, probably Jeter vs. Trammell is a good one to have. That might not be Oriole enough. I think one thing that we often miss was just how good Cal was. We tend to over look his first few years in the league, which were dominating. We also tend to view a lot of his numbers with a post '93 perspective. In reality, he was far better than many realize. I find it strange when on different boards how some will put forth the silly claim that Ripken is in the Hall because of the Streak. Really, his Streak happened because he was a dominant player who insisted on doing things his way.



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3 comments:

  1. Cal had a lot of mediocre seasons, and I wasn't around for his monster years, so it took me a while to get an appreciation for him. He really was a great player, and is a legitimate inner-circle Hall of Famer (and Rally/Chone has him as accumulating the 12th most Wins Above Replacement for players after 1955).

    Jeter will likely pass Trammell in career WAR (unless his decline becomes harsher than it already has) based on more bat but less glove, and both guys don't have an MVP award but should. The Cap'n probably wins by a hair, but he will go into the Hall on the first ballot while Trammell languishes on the outside.

    Miggy isn't even a borderline Hall of Famer, but he was a good player and occasional star, and I'll always have fond memories of his time with the team.

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  2. I guess I win the discussion then. <> insert smiley emoticon <>

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  3. I'm not sure that Jeter will pass Trammell...we may already be seeing a sapping of Jeter's power which will keep him from having a truly monster season as he heads to his late 30's. Trammell was pretty awesome, did a lot of things very well. I don't think he was a HOFer but was surprised that he didn't hang around on the ballot any longer than he did. Underappreciated.

    Ripken's 1991 season was a beauty to behold and I feel sorry for any O's fan who didn't get a chance to watch it.

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