A reader of mine recently asked me if Boston Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia had the best VORP at his position this year (2008) than any other player before him. But before I go further, some of you might be asking, “What in the world is VORP anyway?”. According to Baseball Prospectus, VORP stands for Value Over Replacement Player, which is broken down as the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute if given the same percentage of team plate appearances.
VORP scores do not consider the quality of a player’s defense. Researching this was a bit tedious, but well worth it! The Baseball Prospectus database has gone as far back as 1954 in calculating VORP. What I found out is that Pedroia, depsite all of the MVP talk he’s getting, just beat out the Phillies’ Chase Utley by a tenth of a point in VORP this year, 63.3 to 63.2. In comparing him to the all time leaders at second base, he didn’t even finish in the top 20.
The top player at this position with a VORP of 98.8, which is 35.5 points higher than Pedroia, was Chuck Knoblauch in 1996. For the remainder of the top 20, please see the chart below. So much for Pedroia having the best VORP ever by a second baseman!
In fact, Utley, for all of his offensive hype, just made the top 20 with his stellar performance in 2007 with a score of 68.8 (the same score Ryne Sandberg had in 1984)! Between Pedroia’s 63.3 and the top 20 list provided below there are 10 other higher scores from 4 players who are already in the top 20 and 4 others who are not (Bobby Grich, Willie Randolph, Mark Loretta and Jose Vidro).
Therefore, the bottom line is that Pedroia’s 2008 VORP of 63.3 ranks only 31st on the all time VORP list for second basemen. I hope that helps give people some perspective, but don’t let this conclusion fool you. Pedroia still had a very good year, but it just goes to show you that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions about how great of a year a player either is having or has had without digging a little deeper into past performances.
Year Player VORP
1996 Chuck Knoblauch 98.8
1976 Joe Morgan 94.2
2000 Jeff Kent 92.7
1975 Joe Morgan 91.6
1996 Roberto Alomar 85.1
2001 Roberto Alomar 81.6
1998 Craig Biggio 80.5
1997 Craig Biggio 79.8
1974 Joe Morgan 79.8
1999 Roberto Alomar 77.9
2002 Jeff Kent 77.7
1973 Joe Morgan 77.7
2001 Bret Boone 77.4
2000 Edgardo Alfonzo 76.9
1974 Rod Carew 76.5
1975 Rod Carew 75.4
1993 Roberto Alomar 75.2
1972 Joe Morgan 74.1
1977 Joe Morgan 71.8
1995 Chuck Knoblauch 71.6
1991 Julio Franco 70.1
2007 Chase Utley 68.8
1984 Ryne Sandberg 68.8
Peter Schiller also writes for BaseballReflections.com, which he started in October 2007. To see more of his work over the past year, please follow the link
provided. He also writes for Seamheads.com once a month.
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