The Mariners Franchise Using WAR

Earlier I posted an article comparing some of the best batters in Mariners franchise history. Using the WAR statistic was very fun and interesting for me so I decided to do more. I have put together graphs, facts, statistics and more regarding the WAR statistic in Mariners franchise history. I hope you guys find this interesting! For those not familiar with the WAR it stands for “Wins Above Replacement” and shows the overall value of a player. 

Each year there is an individual that had the highest WAR on the team in a single season. Last year it was Ichiro with a WAR of 4.8. I graphed the highest WAR player in each individual season for every season in Franchise History.

Using that data I found that the highest individual WAR in each season was on average about 5.776.

Here is the Top 5 highest WAR in a single season:

1. 10.2; Ken Griffey Jr (1996)
2. 9.6; Alex Rodriguez (2000)
3. 9.4; Ken Griffey Jr (1997)
4. 9.0; Ken Griffey Jr (1993)
5. 8.4; Alex Rodriguez (1998)

·         The highest increase in the top single season WAR was from 1999 to 2000. It went from 5.4 by Edgar Martinez to 9.6 by Alex Rodriguez.

I also made another graph showing the Mariners total team WAR for each season

• The Mariners total WAR over the history of the franchise is 679- an average of 19.971 per year

Let’s look at the Mariners top 5 highest total WAR seasons and where the team ended up finishing:

Top 5 highest War Franchise Season:

Rank	Year	WAR	Record	Playoffs
1.	2001	44.5	116-46	Yes
2.	1996	42.2	85-76	No
3.	1997	37.4	90-72	Yes
4.	2002	32.4	93-69	No
5.	2003	32.4	93-69	No

Here are some more “Top 5’s” and interesting facts:

Top 5 highest Cumulative WAR while playing with the Mariners franchise in history:

1. Ken Griffey Jr: 72.5
2. Edgar Martinez: 71.6
3. Ichiro Suzuki: 50.7
4. Alex Rodriguez: 36.8
5. Jay Buhner: 26.3

Top 5 WAR seasons for Rookies (I considered a rookie season as more than 150 at-bats and they have not recorded that many at bats thus far in a season)

1. Ichiro Suzuki: 6.1 in 2001
2. Alvin Davis: 5.8 in 1984        
3. Ruppert Jones: 3.7 in 1977
4. Kenji Johjima: 3.3 in 2006
5. Rich Amaral 2.9 in 1993

Another interesting stat:

·               Using the Mariners Average WAR per season (19.971) and the Mariners highest individual WAR average per year (5.776): the highest player WAR makes up an average of 28.9% of the teams overall WAR per year… if that makes sense. In other words the player with the best WAR in a season makes up about 28.9% of the teams overall WAR on average.