For the last two years, I have been ranking every starting player in the MLB by position in a system I’ve dubbed The Determinator. I don’t worry about projection systems, I look only at how well a player did that last year, analyze the data, and showcase who was and will be the best for the upcoming season.
Welcome back to The Determinator.
Today we continue with highlighting the Yankees, honorable mentions, and catching statistic leaders!
The Determinator: My General Methodology
The Determinator is a ranking system that is built upon the analyzation of 16 carefully chosen stats through a very simplistic system of comparisons. Some of these stats are more classical (Games Played, Home Runs, etc.), others are more advanced (wRC+, WAR, etc.). From this come 7 offensive stats, 4 defensive, 2 baserunning, and 3 general stats, set to contribute towards the importance of each part of the game.
The Offensive stats are: AVG/OBP/SLG, wRC, wRC+, HR, and Off (Fangraphs)
The Defensive stats are: Fielding, DRS, UZR (or Framing for Catchers), and Def (Fangraphs)
The Baserunning stats are: Stolen Bases and BsR (Fangraphs)
The Overall stats are: Games Played, Innings at Position, and fWAR (Fangraphs)
After determining this list of statistics, I then had to input each into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet I sorted how each player did in each statistic from best-to-worst. If you were top 5 in a category, you got ranked as a ‘Green’. Top 6-10 was a ‘Yellow’. And, Top 11-15 was labelled as a ‘Red’. The number of each ranking was counted- so it was possible to come out with a score of zero- and given values of 5, 3, and 1 respectively.
Key Note: If player/s across a statistic had the same numbers across a border- for example the 5th and 6th players with the most Home Runs- then they would both be counted as the better ranking- in this case both ‘Green’ or 5 points- and replace one spot from the following ranking- in this case a ‘Yellow’ or 3 points. This could also stretch some statistics to include more ‘Red’ players who had equal stats to the 15th best.
Additionally, if no stats were recorded in a counting statistic that could fit into a ranking- as is seen with Catchers and Stolen Bases- then no ranking is given to those players. This would greatly increase the number of points given out, and lessen the value of each point. This is not true for advanced metrics that can produce negative values- as also is seen with Catchers and BsR.
The results were then tallied, sorted from greatest to least, and a ranking was created.
Finally, player age, 2022 salary, and contract status, were all not considered in this experiment. This is entirely statistic-based.
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In order to quality for ranking by The Determinator, a player must’ve had at least 250 plate appearances during the 2021 season and at least 500 innings played at the position in question.
Yankees Players:
Number 20: Gary Sanchez, New York Yankees
Top-5: HR
Top-10: wRC
Top-15: Games, SLG, wRC+, Off, Innings
Total Score: 13
I’ve been saying that the worst move the Yankees made this offseason was letting Tyler Wade walk for essentially nothing, and I will stand by that. However, the worst non-move that the Yankees (didn’t) make was not going after Jacob Stallings from the Pittsburgh Pirates (he was traded to the Miami Marlins for pennies on the dollar). Gary Sanchez is a fine player who offers lots of offensive upside with short peaks of greatness and long valleys of mediocrity. He’s also never going to be a good defender.Embed from Getty Images
Honorable Mentions:
Jacob Stallings (Miami Marlins) – Scored 31 Points; Ranked 11th
Yadier Molina (St. Louis Cardinals) – Scored 21 Points; Ranked 15th
Christian Vazquez (Boston Red Sox) – Scored 20 Points; Ranked 16th
Francisco Mejia (Tampa Bay Rays) – Scored 14 Points; Ranked 19th
Tucker Barnhart (Cincinnati Reds) – Scored 12 Points; Ranked 21st (tied with Carson Kelly)
James McCann (New York Mets) – Scored 6 Points; Ranked 26th (tied with Dom Nunez)
Pedro Severino (Baltimore Orioles) – Scored 3 Points; Ranked 29th (tied with Ryan Jeffers and Tom Murphy)
Statistic Leaders:
Games – Salvador Perez (161)
Batting Average (AVG) – Buster Posey (.304)
On-Base Percentage (OBP) – Yasmani Grandal (.420)
Slugging Percentage (SLG) – Mike Zunino (.559)
Home Runs (HR) – Salvador Perez (48)
Stolen Bases (SB) – J.T. Realmuto (13)
Weighted Runs Created (wRC) – Salvador Perez (+105)
Weighted Runs Created Plus – (wRC+) – Yasmani Grandal (+159)
Baserunning (BsR) – J.T. Realmuto (+5.5)
Offense (Off) – Yasmani Grandal (+22.3)
Wins Above Replacement (WAR) – Buster Posey (+4.9)
Fielding (Fld) – Sean Murphy (+11.7)
Innings (Inn) – Christian Vazquez (1051.1)
Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) – Jacob Stallings (+21)
Framing (FRM) – Max Stassi (+12)
Defense (Def) – Sean Murphy (+19.6)
Reminder:
The Determinator is a way I used to determine the best players at each position. Like any metric or formula, I am sure it has flaws. No statistical compilation is perfect. That being said, The Determinator, seems pretty effective at assigning player values. I’m pleased with what I have found using this method and hope this is a conversation starter for many.
