Top rWAR Players of the Royals Era (1969-2011)

Position players:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	From	To	G	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Barry Bonds	171.8	1986	2007	2986	2935	601	77	762	514	141	.298	.444	.607	1.051
2	Rickey Henderson	113.1	1979	2003	3081	3055	510	66	297	1406	335	.279	.401	.419	.820
3	Mike Schmidt	108.3	1972	1989	2404	2234	408	59	548	174	92	.267	.380	.527	.908
4	Alex Rodriguez	104.9	1994	2011	2402	2775	495	29	629	305	73	.302	.386	.567	.953
5	Cal Ripken	89.9	1981	2001	3001	3184	603	44	431	36	39	.276	.340	.447	.788
6	Joe Morgan	89.2	1969	1984	2209	2079	386	63	243	625	139	.271	.394	.433	.826
7	Wade Boggs	89.0	1982	1999	2440	3010	578	61	118	24	35	.328	.415	.443	.858
8	Albert Pujols	89.0	2001	2011	1705	2073	455	15	445	84	35	.328	.420	.617	1.037
9	George Brett	85.0	1973	1993	2707	3154	665	137	317	201	97	.305	.369	.487	.857
10	Chipper Jones	83.0	1993	2011	2387	2615	526	38	454	149	46	.304	.402	.533	.935
11	Jeff Bagwell	79.9	1991	2005	2150	2314	488	32	449	202	78	.297	.408	.540	.948
12	Ken Griffey	78.5	1989	2010	2671	2781	524	38	630	184	69	.284	.370	.538	.907
13	Robin Yount	76.9	1974	1993	2856	3142	583	126	251	271	105	.285	.342	.430	.772
14	Frank Thomas	75.9	1990	2008	2322	2468	495	12	521	32	23	.301	.419	.555	.974
15	Paul Molitor	74.8	1978	1998	2683	3319	605	114	234	504	131	.306	.369	.448	.817
16	Rod Carew	74.6	1969	1985	2205	2777	396	103	83	336	174	.333	.400	.435	.835
17	Jim Thome	71.7	1991	2011	2485	2287	444	26	604	19	20	.277	.403	.556	.959
18	Derek Jeter	70.9	1995	2011	2426	3088	492	65	240	339	91	.313	.383	.449	.832
19	Reggie Jackson	70.2	1969	1987	2631	2425	446	39	533	213	110	.264	.359	.495	.854
20	Lou Whitaker	69.7	1977	1995	2390	2369	420	65	244	143	75	.276	.363	.426	.789

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used


Pitchers:

Rk	Player	WAR	From	To	G	W	L	W-L%	BB	SO	ERA	ERA+
1	Roger Clemens	128.4	1984	2007	709	354	184	.658	1580	4672	3.12	143
2	Greg Maddux	96.8	1986	2008	744	355	227	.610	999	3371	3.16	132
3	Randy Johnson	91.8	1988	2009	618	303	166	.646	1497	4875	3.29	136
4	Tom Seaver	91.4	1969	1986	585	279	180	.608	1264	3265	2.91	127
5	Bert Blyleven	90.1	1970	1992	692	287	250	.534	1322	3701	3.31	118
6	Phil Niekro	87.1	1969	1987	702	287	247	.537	1653	2999	3.45	114
7	Nolan Ryan	83.6	1969	1993	784	318	282	.530	2717	5575	3.19	112
8	Steve Carlton	77.9	1969	1988	653	299	221	.575	1684	3760	3.24	116
9	Pedro Martinez	75.9	1992	2009	476	219	100	.687	760	3154	2.93	154
10	Mike Mussina	74.8	1991	2008	537	270	153	.638	785	2813	3.68	123
11	Gaylord Perry	73.6	1969	1983	528	238	195	.550	1040	2533	3.12	119
12	Curt Schilling	69.7	1988	2007	569	216	146	.597	711	3116	3.46	128
13	Tom Glavine	67.0	1987	2008	682	305	203	.600	1500	2607	3.54	118
14	Rick Reuschel	66.3	1972	1991	557	214	191	.528	935	2015	3.37	114
15	Fergie Jenkins	65.3	1969	1983	518	236	189	.555	795	2536	3.44	114
16	Kevin Brown	64.8	1986	2005	486	211	144	.594	901	2397	3.28	127
17	John Smoltz	63.9	1988	2009	723	213	155	.579	1010	3084	3.33	125
18	Jim Palmer	62.1	1969	1984	492	245	137	.641	1144	1967	2.80	129
19	Roy Halladay	61.8	1998	2011	378	188	92	.671	520	1934	3.23	138
20	Don Sutton	60.7	1969	1988	665	290	214	.575	1175	3034	3.27	110

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Just missing the cut: David Cone (22), Bret Saberhagen (26), Kevin Appier (31)

Extracting Memories: Out At Third

Buck O'Neil thrown out at third base, May 30, 1942, Kansas City

Extracting Memories: 1951 Monarchs Home Opener

2011 Royals Pitcher wOBA & WPA Records

WOBA AGAINST

.236 Greg Holland

.261 Luis Mendoza

.302 Louis Coleman

.305 Everett Teaford

.308 Joakim Soria

.314 Tim Collins

.314 Aaron Crow

.315 Jeremy Jeffress

.316 Blake Wood

.318 Bruce Chen

.320 Felipe Paulino

.322 Luke Hochevar

.336 Nathan Adcock

.340 Jeff Francis

.373 Danny Duffy

.390 Kyle Davies

.394 Sean O'Sullivan

.414 Vin Mazzaro

minimum 40 batters faced

wOBA = ((.72 x BB) + (.75 x HBP) + (.9 x 1B) + (1.24 x 2B) + (1.56 x 3B) + (1.95 x HR))/PA

WPA RECORDS

Bruce Chen 14-11

Felipe Paulino 9-11

Luke Hochevar 13-18

Sean O'Sullivan 4-6

Jeff Francis 12-19

Danny Duffy 7-13

Kyle Davies 2-11

team total: 68-94 (.420)

a "win" is a start with a positive win probability added

20/20 And Ignoring Caught Stealings

Jeff Francoeur has had a fantastic year. With his 20th ding dong against the White Sox tonight, much was made about him joining the 20HR/20SB club, something that only three other Royals have done (Amos Otis, Bo Jackson and Carlos Beltran). So yeah, quite a few homers and swipes for Frenchy. But has Francoeur really had such a good year on the basepaths? One of my biggest baseball pet peeves is how stolen bases are routinely only mentioned as a total of successful attempts, ignoring how many times the player was caught. If you only know the number of successful attempts, you do not know much.

If I'm crunching the numbers from this page correctly (no sure thing), the average stolen base from 1969-2010 was worth .200 runs, while the average caught stealing was worth -.408 runs. Multiplying those values by stolen bases and caught stealings and adding those totals together, you can get an overall run value for stolen base attempts. It has taken Frenchy 32 attempts to get to 22 steals, good for a whopping run value of .3. If he had gone 2-for-2 on stolen base attempts, no one would be talking about it, but it would have helped the team more than going 22-for-32.

Still, it has been somewhat of a rarity for a Royals player to hit 20+ home runs and have a positive run value on stolen base attempts. Frenchy and Alex are both doing it this year, barely. If they can finish the year in the black for stolen base runs, it will make 28 such seasons in Royals history. But don't make the mistake of thinking Frenchy is reaching the same plateaus Beltran, Otis and Bo did.

Here are the 20 HR/positive stolen base runs seasons, ranked by stolen base runs:

Municipal Stadium Marker Is Back!

In April, 2010 I discovered that the Municipal Stadium historical marker had disappeared from 22nd & Brooklyn. Uni Watch also reported on it. Jeff Logan of the KC Baseball Historical Society tried to find out what the story was without satisfying results, but he got the impression the sign was in Parks & Recreation storage with no plans for it to be returned. I emailed city councilmen asking for info and/or help without any response. I drove by the spot again sometime in the winter of '10-'11 and the sign was still gone.

But today I swung by the corner again with no hope of seeing the sign--but it was there! Twitter e-migo @KC22ndBrooklyn tells me he saw the sign this past spring, so it has been back for a little while. It has been moved slightly from its previous position, and is anchored in dirt and grass instead of cement. One of the two benches that used to be there is back. Perhaps the plan all along was for the removal to be temporary while the corner was redone. In any event, it is a relief that the sign has been returned to its rightful spot, honoring the most hallowed patch of land in KC baseball history.