I'm a big fan of leaderboards. There's something so satisfying about them. They take me back to my youth, when I would pour through books, soaking in the lists of all-time greats - all-time leader in hits, homeruns, RBIs, etc. Records amazed me and they still do; there's something magical about those numbers, no? 511, 56, 61, .402, 4256 - it's incredible how much emotion and history can be conveyed by such simple numbers.
And so, this past off-season I made an all-time offensive leaderboard for the Rays. I choose the statistic Weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA), which uses wOBA to measure in runs how much offensive value a player contributed to their team. For example, this season Carl Crawford has posted a .399 wOBA in 371 plate appearances, which translates to 22.4 runs of offensive value. It's a statistic available on FanGraphs for all players in baseball history, so I figured it would be fun to see which players have contributed the most to the Rays during their time with the franchise.
After the jump, you'll find the wRAA leaderboard from before this season, and the updated one that includes value accrued this season. Enjoy!
Pre-2010 Leaderboard:
|
Names |
wRAA |
|
|
1 |
Carlos Pena |
95.7 |
|
2 |
Fred McGriff |
74.2 |
|
3 |
Carl Crawford |
57.4 |
|
4 |
Aubrey Huff |
52.2 |
|
5 |
Evan Longoria |
47.0 |
|
6 |
Jose Canseco |
30.1 |
|
7 |
Julio Lugo |
24.9 |
|
8 |
Bubba Trammell |
24.4 |
|
9 |
Jason Bartlett |
21.0 |
|
10 |
BJ Upton |
19.5 |
|
11 |
Ben Zobrist |
17.6 |
|
12 |
Ben Grieve |
17.2 |
Updated Leaderboard:
|
Names |
wRAA |
|
|
1 |
Carlos Pena |
96.2 |
|
2 |
Carl Crawford |
79.8 |
|
3 |
Fred McGriff |
74.2 |
|
4 |
Evan Longoria |
67.2 |
|
5 |
Aubrey Huff |
57.4 |
|
6 |
Jose Canseco |
30.1 |
|
7 |
Ben Zobrist |
29.1 |
|
8 |
Julio Lugo |
24.9 |
|
9 |
Bubba Trammell |
24.4 |
|
10 |
BJ Upton |
20.6 |
|
11 |
Ben Grieve |
17.2 |
|
12 |
Jason Bartlett |
13.8 |
Evan Longoria should take over the number three spot by the end of the season, and there's an outside chance that Crawford could surpass Pena (assuming CC stays this hot and Pena stays this cold). Zobrist will also likely pass Canseco, and hopefully BJ and Bartlett can perform better in the second half and move further up the list. I really don't like having Julio Lugo and Bubba Trammell sitting on our all-time offensive leaderboard - that's just so disappointing.