Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames in 07
Whoa. So they have won 10% of their games because they have Bautista in left instead of an avg starter?! That's insane.
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Well, it's instead of a replacement level, waiver wire type player not an average starter. And the way it works is that a replacement level team would still win some games if it existed. I've heard people project it to be 1/3 (55 wins over a full season). At that rate, the Jays would project to be 19-37 right. At a record of 28-28 now, Bautista's 5.0ish WAR has directly accounted for more than half the 9 more wins they have compared to a hypothetical waiver wire team.
Quite simply, Bautista is the team.
Here's a good blog post on how much Bautista is carrying the Jays offense:
http://www.ghostrunneronfirst.com/20...er+on+First%29
The first graph is astounding. If you took a team of guys off the waiver wire (and they produced exactly like their projected numbers) and added Bautista to right field they'd have a better offense than the Jays this season...and the Jays have scored the 4th most runs in the MLB this season.