@ilvmyjeep said in WAR MOST OVERRATED FORMULA IN BASEBALL:

Bottom line is that WAR is imperfect and flawed (OP’s point), but is currently the best available stand alone stat we have to compare players across different eras (other commenters points).

In 2019, Justin Verlander was 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA and 300k. His pitching was worth 7.4bWAR. In 2019, Mike Minor was 14-10 with a 3.59 ERA and 200k. His pitching was worth 7.8bWAR.

In 2019, Gerrit Cole was 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA and 326k. His pitching was worth 6.6bWAR. In 2019, Lance Lynn was 16-11 with a 3.67 ERA and 246k. His pitching was worth 7.5bWAR.

In this case, WAR is misleading. Despite having lower bWAR totals, Verlander and Cole had better seasons. Accordingly, Verlander and Cole finished 1st and 2nd in Cy Young voting while Lynn and Minor finished 5th and 8th.

bWAR includes park adjustments, so playing in Globe Life increased the bWAR totals of Lynn and Minor and without a deeper dive could lead someone that lives and dies by WAR to believe that Lynn and Minor were better than Verlander and Cole last season. Which to OP’s point, would be a ridiculous conclusion.

Having said that, more often than not, WAR (bWAR or fWAR) is going to be the best all-incompassing stand alone indicator of performance. The best players will consistently post the highest WAR totals.

In baseball, almost everything is recorded, quantified, and analyzed. With all the information that’s available, why would anyone choose just one stat to look at when comparing players? Even if that stat is comprised/calculated using other stats, it’s impossible to paint the entire picture and honestly, that person is just missing out on the incredible and fascinating information that’s out there.

I apologize to anyone who stuck with me and read all this. Believe it or not, I tried to keep it short. There’s just so much information out there that people are missing out on, and because of it, there’s seasons and careers that get tragically overlooked.

No one with half a brain uses bWAR for anyone other than infielders and WAR actually is somewhat flawed for pitchers
fWAR is a superior stat in all ways to bWAR
Era should not effect WAR anyway because it's dependent on quality of fielders and is a more flawed stat than WAR itself, instead fWAR uses FIP(fielding independent pitching), which is an independent stat that doesn't rely on the fielding besides catcher framing
Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole had better seasons, which is why no one with half a brain uses bWAR for anything besides 3rd base, as well as SS and 2B occasionally

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