We know (and abuse) the concept of "Wins Against Replacement Player," or how much effect on his team's success any given player would have when compared to an average replacement player at his position.
The recent Ingeapalooza has gotten me thinking about the concept of why some players are loved while others are ignored or reviled, seemingly with no regard to their actual value to the team.
So, in a Bill Jamesian burst of insight, I present to you the concept of "Fans Over Replacement Player," or FARP. My rankings for our 2012 Tigers with some discussion of the factors informing their ratings follow.
|
|
FARP |
Pro |
Con |
|
Al Alburquerque |
1.8 |
Slider, name |
Fears that he's Zumaya 2.0 |
|
Alex Avila |
3.2 |
Durability, beard |
Nepotism, regression |
|
Andy Dirks |
0.2 |
Grittiness |
Neck, skills |
|
Austin Jackson |
2.8 |
Glove, smile |
#strikesout |
|
Brandon Inge |
DIV/0 |
Defense, sick kids, grittiness, tenure, attractiveness to pink shersey wearers with tramp stamps |
See: Baseball-Reference.com. |
|
Brennan Boesch |
3.1 |
Bashes, cuteness |
Fragile |
|
Clete Thomas |
-0.2 |
Cult following |
Skills, not blinking |
|
Collin Balester |
-0.3 |
Moustache, not being Ryan Perry |
Basically being Ryan Perry |
|
Daniel Schlereth |
-1.5 |
Actually being relatively not terrible |
Alaskan Gas Can, parentage |
|
Danny Worth |
1.8 |
Versatile, plays Words with Fans |
Definition of utility player |
|
Delmon Young |
0.9 |
Occasional monster home runs |
First pitch swinging. Tongue. Defense. Not being Casper Wells |
|
Don Kelly |
1.5 |
0.00 ERA |
Jack of all positions, master of none |
|
Doug Fister |
3.6 |
Skills, fun with name |
Fears of Doyle Alexander v2.0 |
|
Gerald Laird |
-0.6 |
Legitimate backup catcher |
We still remember him as a starter |
|
Jhonny Peralta |
0 |
Least-appreciated All-Star on the team |
Chinstrap, ESL |
|
Joaquin Benoit |
0.3 |
As dominant as Valverde last year |
Boils, not being Valverde |
|
Jose Valverde |
3.9 |
Perfection, dancing |
Just wait until he blows a save |
|
Justin Verlander |
10 |
Duh. |
Needs to tweet more |
|
Luis Marte |
N/A |
|
|
|
Max Scherzer |
3.7 |
Those blue-eye innings. Strangely compelling on Twitter. |
Those brown-eye innings |
|
Miguel Cabrera |
9.5 |
Duh, plus the way he handled Prince coming in. |
Demon rum. |
|
Octavio Dotel |
N/A |
|
|
|
Phil Coke |
8.5 |
Reflected glory from his brain, being the best quote on the team not named Leyland |
Lingering hangover from the "let's have Coke start" experiment |
|
Prince Fielder |
5.5 |
Daddy. The bat. Cute kids. Trolling Lynn Henning. |
Displacing Miggy from 1B. Pre-emptive buyer's remorse. |
|
Ramon Santiago |
1.3 |
Great name. |
Everyday-ness. |
|
Rick Porcello |
4.8 |
Easy on the ladies' eyes. |
Not a kid any more. |
|
Ryan Raburn |
-2.2 |
Second half |
First half. Defense. |
Note: I can't believe that I'm the first person ever to think of this concept, but I didn't want to Google it to see if somebody else did it better because I didn't want to get discouraged. Any plagiarism is unintentional.
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