BP Unfiltered

Good add on (the options), thanks.

I just thought of a great statistic that would measure a manager's ability to choose players for a team that will help the team the most. Getting star players is the general managers' job, but what about the rest? As far as I know it is the manager's job to choose who fills out the 25 man roster. Let's add up all the WAR (or WSAB or whatever is the BP approved equivalent) of all the players on the team who were not starters most of the year. That stat would not include the WAR of players who were starters on other teams, but traded to or from the manager's team, nor would it include the other starter at that position, if he were a starter most of the year. Otherwise, you must include one player from each of the 8 field positions and 1 DH. It would include 4 starter pitchers, but not the 5th. I think the best managers deserve credit for anointing a good 5th starter.

Of course, sticking with 4 starters allows comparisons with earlier managers throughout most of the 20 century. It still wouldn't be perfectly fair as recent managers use less and less of their top four starters. However, theoretically that takes them out of the game before they blow it, so I would think that it compares reasonably well.

You could call it Bench WAR, Reserve WAR, or manager's WAR, or . . .