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 right 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:
Two current/former Yankees Players from 2021/2022 Qualified for a RIght Field ranking by The Determinator
You can see their writeups here:
In lieu of talking about another Yankees right fielder for this section, enjoy the following few photos of former Yankees Right Fielder (and my 2nd favorite player of all time), Ichiro Suzuki:
Honorable Mentions:
Adam Duvall (Atlanta Braves) – Scored 33 Points; Ranked 11th
Charlie Blackmon (Colorado Rockies) – Scored 31 Points; Ranked 12th
Max Kepler (Minnesota Twins) – Scored 29 Points; Ranked 13th
Mitch Haniger (Seattle Mariners) – Scored 25 Points; Ranked 14th
Jason Heyward (Chicago Cubs) – Scored 22 Points; Ranked 16th
Hunter Renfroe (Boston Red Sox) – Scored 17 Points; Ranked 18th
Mike Yastrzemski (San Francisco Giants) – Scored 15 Points; Ranked 19th (Tied with Manuel Margot, Tampa Bay Rays)
Jorge Soler (Miami Marlins) – Scored 5 Points; Ranked 23rd
Michael Conforto (New York Mets) – Scored 4 Points; Ranked 24th (Tied with Adam Eaton, Free Agent)
Anthony Santander (Baltimore Orioles) – Scored 3 Points; Ranked 26th
Statistic Leaders:
Games – Mitch Haniger (157)
Batting Average (AVG) – Juan Soto (.313)
On-Base Percentage (OBP) – Juan Soto (.465)
Slugging Percentage (SLG) – Bryce Harper (.615)
Home Runs (HR) – Mitch Haniger and Aaron Judge (39)
Stolen Bases (SB) – Robbie Grossman (20)
Weighted Runs Created (wRC) – Juan Soto (136)
Weighted Runs Created Plus – (wRC+) – Bryce Harper (170)
Baserunning (BsR) – Max Kepler (+5.0)
Offense (Off) – Bryce Harper (+50.7)
Wins Above Replacement (WAR) – Bryce Harper and Juan Soto (+6.6)
Fielding (Fld) – Adam Duvall (+9.9)
Innings (Inn) – Juan Soto (1226.0)
Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) – Joey Gallo, Aaron Judge, and Kyle Tucker (+11)
Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) – Avisail Garcia (+7.8)
Defense (Def) – Jason Heyward (+3.4)
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.
