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 left field 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:
No current/former Yankees Players from 2021/2022 Qualified for a Left Field ranking by The Determinator
(Note: This is not because of poor performance, but a lack of innings played at left field in 2021.)
In lieu of talking about a Yankees left fielder for this section, enjoy the following few photos of former Yankees Left Fielder (and my favorite player of all time), Hideki Matsui:
Honorable Mentions:
Austin Hayes (Baltimore Orioles) – Scored 34 Points; Ranked 11th
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays) – Scored 33 Points; Ranked 12th
Mark Canha (Oakland Athletics) – Scored 30 Points; Ranked 13th
Christian Yelich (Milwaukee Brewers) – Scored 29 Points; Ranked 14th
Andrew McCutchen (Milwaukee Brewers) – Scored 28 Points; Ranked 15th
Michael Brantley (Houston Astros) – Scored 26 Points; Ranked 16th
Eddie Rosario (Atlanta Braves) – Scored 15 Points; Ranked 19th
Ben Gamel (Pittsburgh Pirates) – Scored 12 Points; Ranked 20th
Dominic Smith (New York Mets) – Scored 8 Points; Ranked 23rd
Joc Pederson (San Francisco Giants) – Scored 5 Points; Ranked 24th
Justin Upton (Los Angeles Angels) – Scored 3 Points; Ranked 25th
Statistic Leaders:
Games – Robbie Grossman (156)
Batting Average (AVG) – Michael Brantley (.311)
On-Base Percentage (OBP) – Jesse Winker (.394)
Slugging Percentage (SLG) – Tyler O’Neill (.560)
Home Runs (HR) – Tyler O’Neill (34)
Stolen Bases (SB) – Randy Arozarena, Robbie Grossman, and Raimel Tapia (20)
Weighted Runs Created (wRC) – Tyler O’Neill (96)
Weighted Runs Created Plus – (wRC+) – Jesse Winker (148)
Baserunning (BsR) – Tyler O’Neill (+4.7)
Offense (Off) – Tyler O’Neill (+35.1)
Wins Above Replacement (WAR) – Tyler O’Neill (+5.4)
Fielding (Fld) – Austin Hayes (+6.9)
Innings (Inn) – Andrew Benintendi (1116.0)
Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) – Tyler O’Neill (+12)
Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) – Tyler O’Neill (+6.7)
Defense (Def) – Tyler O’Neill (+1.0)
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.
