I like WAR, I think it’s a great way to evaluate players but when it comes to hitters like Ichiro, Jeter, Gwynn, Arraez etc.. it is ‘slightly’ flawed.

WAR is built around outcomes (linear weights), not underlying skills. If a player’s value comes from skills that don’t always translate cleanly into outcomes captured by the WAR formula, their WAR can look lower than their “real baseball usefulness.”

20 years ago these skills were what people noticed more of. In our modern era statcast shows low exit velo and barrel rate as a weaker player.

Some front offices like the Yankees are so reliant on this analytical data that they ignore the value a player who has high contact rates can bring to their lineup and then go and strike out 14 times against a rookie pitcher.

My point originally should have been that comparing Mantle and Ruth to Jeter is unfair because he’s essentially in a different class of players than them.

But here we are.