Phun With Win Shares

Because I couldn't watch the Phillies choke a game away last night, I was freed up to mow the lawn, pack for a weekend bachelor party in Boston, and tinker with the sortable Win Shares portion of The Hardball Times website (which has really grown and undergone numerous upgrades in the last year).  Some of what I found really puts an interesting perspective on things.

First off, a quick primer for the uninitiated to win shares.  Essentially, it is a measure of the contribution of a player to his team's win total.  Theoretically, for every three win shares a player accumulates, it means he is probably responsible for the equivalent of one team win.  For more explanation, see Wikipedia.  For even more, buy the book.

- Bobby Abreu leads the Phillies with 27 and is tenth in all of baseball.  Albert Pujols leads the way with 34.

- Chase Utley is fourth amongst all second basemen with 22 win shares.  He trails Jeff Kent (29), Brian Roberts (26), and Marcus Giles (24).

- Eude Brito has been with the Phillies for just a short time and has seen little action.  He has accumulated one win share, while Rheal Cormier is stuck on zero.

- Placido Polanco has not played for the Phillies in three months.  However, he still has more batting win shares (5.1) in a Phillies uniform in 2005 than David Bell (2.4).

- The Hardball Times has further refined Win Shares with the "win shares above bench player" stat or WSAB.  It measures how many win shares a player has accumulated over a bench player or the proverbial "AAAA" player.  David Bell has -4, which is the same number as Terry Adams.  They are tied for last place on the Phillies.

- Roger Clemens is the active player with the most career win shares, 422.  Close on his heels is Craig Effing Biggio with 412.  Jim Thome is the highest Phillie with 282.

- Clemens is also the starting pitcher who has helped his team the most this year with 24 win shares.  You've got to go all the way down to the 22nd spot to find a Phillie, Brett Myers.

- Brett Myers and Billy Wagner have really separated themselves from the rest of the Phillies pitchers.  Myers has 14.5 pitching win shares, Wags has 13.5, and the next closest is Jon Lieber with 9.2.

- Jim Thome has four win shares on the year, Ryan Howard has seven.  In 2003, Thome had 30 win shares and in 2004 he had 22.  If you extrapolate Howard's partial 2005 season to a full 550 at-bat season, he would have 16.6. [By the way does anyone else change their mind everyday on what the Phillies should do with Howard and Thome in the offseason?]

- Oh, and back to "win shares above bench player", TSWWRN has one.  One!

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A quick informal poll...drop me an email or leave a comment...did you miss watching the Phils last night?

In an odd and perverse way, I sorta did.  I think it is similar to the way I feel after a bad round of golf, I want to go right back out there and try it again, because dammitt, I know I can do better if I try again.

I guess I assume the team feels the same way.

They'd better...