Who are our most average players of all-time?
This was inspired by the recent post in the D-backs’ grid series, where we had to pick an average player well-regarded by fans. There was some initial confusion over the difference between WAR and WAA. WAR compares a player against a replacement level one. To quote Fangraphs: “Replacement level is simply the level of production you could get from a player that would cost you nothing but the league minimum salary to acquire. Minor league free agents, quad-A players.” That is considerably worse than average. The same article explains there is about 570 WAR available each year for position players: with 30 teams at 13 position players each, that means an average, full-time player is worth 1.46 WAR.
For amusement, I thought it might be fun to put together a roster of the most average D-backs at each position. This involves a bit of subjectivity, because it’s very easy for a player to end up at 0.0 Wins Above Average (WAA), if they simply don’t play much. It’s more impressive for a player to be close to zero, after multiple seasons as a regular starter. So what’s below takes both playing time and total WAA into consideration. I’ve also required at least 50% of a player’s time to be at the chosen position, in order to qualify.
C: Carson Kelly – 384 games, 0.1 WAA
There was so much hope for Kelly, after he arrived in the Goldschmidt trade. It didn’t quite pan out, but he certainly wasn’t terrible overall in his time here. Injury certainly was not his friend, and he never seemed the same after breaking a right wrist bone in 2021. As backup catcher, I should mention Alex Avila who, despite being much maligned by fans, was also worth 0.1 WAA in his time here, albeit in fewer games.
1B: Lyle Overbay – 161 games, -0.2 WAA
This would be a good trivia question: “Which member of the 2001 D-backs was the last to appear for the team?” Lyle would be the answer, as he got a cup of coffee just before our World Series run, and played his final game for Arizona in July 2012. Of course, in between he spent time with Milwaukee, Toronto and Pittsburgh. But all told, a 1,587 game career and 16.5 bWAR is pretty close to average.
2B: Aaron Hill – 525 games, 0.4 WAA
An alternate choice would be Phil Gosselin, who was rather closer to average (0.1 WAA), but in considerably less playing-time (146 games). Seeing Hill here might be a surprise, considering he was an All-Star in 2012 – and justifiably so, hitting .302 with 26 home-runs. But the 5.1 bWAR he posted that year was three-quarters of his total bWAR for Arizona, across five seasons. The total of 6.8 is less impressive.
SS: Didi Gregorius – 183 games, 0.4 WAA
This was a bit tough, with nobody closer than Didi to average, on either side of the line, who played even fifteen games as a D-back. In case you’d forgotten, we got Gregorius in the December 2012, three-team trade which cleared Trevor Bauer off our books. Two years later, he became part of another three-team trade, this time going to the Yankees, in which we got Robbie Ray. So Didi was significant in both directions: less so while here.
3B: Jake Lamb – 596 games, 0.4 WAA
There are a few credible contenders here. Eric Chavez had 124 games and 0.2 WAA, but I doubt Yusmeiro Petit would consider him average. If we want to go below the line, Emmanuel Rivera (125 games, -0.3) would be possible. But Lamb’s long-term consistency is unmatched in Diamondbacks’ history. From 2015-17, he produced three consecutive seasons between two and three bWAR.
LF: Cody Ross – 177 games, -0.5 WAA
Not many choices here, Ross the only player less than plus or minus 0.8 with more than fifty appearances. What stands out in my memory for Ross is the way his career effectively ended – breaking his hip while running to first, an injury unprecedented in the game. It was amazing he came back at all, but was never the same again, and was out of baseball less than a hundred appearances later.
CF: Alek Thomas – 277 games, -0.6 WAA
This could have been Jeff DaVanon (100 games, -0.2), but I want to get the total here close to zero, and I’ve been skewing above average for most of the picks to date. Also nice to have a member of the current roster as a yardstick. Whether Alek will remain there, is still to be seen. Right now, he seems to have lost his roster spot to Jake McCarthy, but we will see what 2025 brings for Thomas.
RF: Kole Calhoun – 105 game, -0.1 WAA
He is one in what, at a certain point, seemed to be an endless line of defensively challenged sluggers we tried in the outfield. Like Overbay, Calhoun’s whole career was largely average, with a total of 14 bWAR across 1,239 games and a dozen seasons. Here, he was definitely better in his first season than his second, with OPS+ of 130 and 81 respectively. But balance them out, and the average is… um, average.
SP: Wade Miley – 638.2 IP, 0.1 WAA
Andy Benes – 429.2 IP, 0.5 WAA
Armando Reynoso – 386.0 IP, -0.4 WAA
Ryne Nelson – 313.0 IP, -0.3 WAA
Brian Anderson – 840.2 IP. 1.1 WAA
There is your average – or, at least, average-ish rotation, led by Miley who did a very impressive job of being exactly that here. Especially considering he was a Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2012. Thereafter, it was a case of declining returns for Arizona, but in his 14 seasons so far, he has been worth 18.1 bWAR. In this category, I also want to shout out Mr. Anderson, still fourth on our all-time innings pitched (he’ll likely get passed by Merrill Kelly in April, and Zac Gallen later this year), for being remarkably average over such a long tenure in Arizona.
RP: Tony Peña – 222.2 IP, 0.0 WAA
Kevin Ginkel – 233.1 IP, 0.1 WAA
Joe Mantiply – 200.2 IP, -0.2 WAA
Yoshihisa Hirano – 119.1 IP, 0.0 WAA
David Hernandez – 252.1 IP, -0.4 WAA
There’s a bullpen to strike a somewhat moderate amount of… well, mild concern into opposing batters. We get two members of the current roster here, and I was a bit surprised by them. I guess such is the nature of reliever volatility, with both Ginkel and Mantiply having had spells of dominance, and also spells where their entrances into a game would provoke plenty of “mild concern” on our side as well. But as with all these categories, we should remember that, by definition, not everyone is going to be above average. Every roster needs its journeymen as well as its superstars, and being an average MLB player still makes you better at the game than 99.9999% of the planet’s population.
81-81 season for the above roster, incoming. 🙂