I was spending some time alone with some stats (as a man is wont to do) and got wondering about eras in sports. My memory of baseball tends to stretch over periods of 10 years (think: best team of a decade), and got me thinking: since the 2013 season, how many players have contributed at least 10 total WAR to the Angels?
There are a couple ways a player can do so: consistent playing time by a day-in-day-out player, a superstar year or two, or just someone who has been a piece on a team long enough to accumulate that stat. I know WAR is not the end-all, but for sake of this discussion it seems to align with my expectations.
Off the top of your head, and before I go any further, think about this era of Angels ball. Think back about all the players we have had. The good, the bad, the hype and the failings. How many players do you think have contributed 10 War over that span? You know 2 without me saying. But beyond that: who?
Let’s look at batters first.
Batter | fWar
Mike Trout | 74.3
Shohei Ohtani | 19.9
Kole Calhoun | 14.5
Andrelton Simmons | 14.3
That’s it. 4 batters over that span have helped here. The next nearest is Fletcher with 7.3; a couple of 1+ war seasons should get him into this hallowed echelon. The pitching side gets even worse:
Pitcher | fWar
Shohei Ohtani | 11.8
Garrett Richards | 11.5
The man on the outside looking in is Heaney at 8.1.
“But this seems arbitrary! What does any of this matter” you might say. Well let’s take a guess about what some other teams in that period might average:
| Team | Batters | Pitchers |
| Astros | 8 | 6 |
| Athletics | 8 | 2|
| Blue Jays | 7 | 3|
| Braves | 7 | 3|
| Brewers | 4 | 3|
| Cardinals | 8 | 6|
| Cubs | 7 | 3|
| Diamondbacks | 6 | 5|
| Dodgers | 11 | 6|
| Giants | 4 | 2|
| Guardians | 7 | 6|
| Mariners | 7 | 4|
| Marlins | 4 | 2|
| Mets | 6 | 4|
| Nationals | 5 | 5|
| Orioles | 6 | 1|
| Padres | 4 | 0|
| Phillies | 5 | 3|
| Pirates | 7 | 1|
| Rangers | 6 | 2|
| Rays | 5 | 2|
| Red Sox | 8 | 5|
| Reds | 4 | 1|
| Rockies | 6 | 3|
| Royals | 5 | 1|
| Tigers | 3 | 5|
| Twins | 6 | 2|
| White Sox | 5 | 5|
| Yankees | 6 | 5|
When looking at this, it shows a bit about what makes up a consistently good team. Balance across both sides of the ball, signing good players for long term depth and stability, and having stars perform. A part of success required good players to align in the same season, but the angels on this metric grade out like the Marlins and Giants. Giants have the late portion of their dynasty represented here, and the Marlins were trading as many people as they could always whenever they started to contribute. Most other teams have a good split of players across both in that time (except the Padres, apparently).
Just think it’s a neat lens to see why we have been in such a performance dry spell; or at least some part of it.
