The Vladimir Hate is Going Too Far: Part I – Vlad = Wieters

There are very few occasions where you will find such a hate for a player who is coming off a .300 average, 29 homerun, and 115 RBI season, and such a disappointment from supposed “fans” for the team that signed him.

What is floating around the world wide web on Vladimir Guerrero is simply shocking.

Since the $8 million signing of designated hitter Guerrero, well-known Baltimore Orioles blogs have been posting nothing but hate for the hitter who finished 11th in the MVP voting in 2010.

Taking shots at them would be far too easy. I have done it before via Twitter. Nothing gets resolved. No one listens. They want to keep their own opinion. If I did take shots at them here, I would only be posting links for you to go view their blogs. No one wants that. I do feel that people need to see the other side of some arguments, though.

Two things (only two thus far) have stuck out at me.

The fuel from Part I comes from a well-known Orioles blog.

Matt Wieters = Vladimir Guerrero

I’m not even going to tell you which blog said that Matt Wieters’  .249/11/55 season was equal to Vlad’s .300/29/115 season.

To use more stats, here are the players’ advantages:

Runs: Vlad (+46)
Hits: Vlad (+67)
Doubles: Vlad (+5)
Homeruns: Vlad (+18)
RBIs: Vlad (+60)
Stolen Bases: Vlad (+4)
Walks: Wieters (+12)
Strikeouts: Vlad (+34)
Batting Averages: Vlad (+.051)
On-Base Percentage: Vlad (+.026)
Slugging Percentage: Vlad (+.119)
On-Base Plus Slugging: Vlad (+.146)
OPS+: Vlad (+33)
Average w/ Runners in Scoring Position: Vlad (+.107)
OPS w/ RISP: Vlad (+.218)

There are sixteen stats. Vlad has the edge in the series, if you will, 15-1. So how can someone with a well-read Orioles blog say that Wieters had a better 2010 than Guerrero?

He points to one stat – WAR.

He claims that since Wieters’ was at 2.5 while Vlad’s was 2.1, that Wieters had to have the better 2010.

For those of you that don’t know, WAR, standing for Wins Above Replacement, is the amount of wins that the player added to the team more than a replacement level (AAA or AA) player would.

He told me to read this article on replacement level players.

It’s not hard to tell that the stat is abstract, but the only thing that the stat proves is that a good catcher is more valuable than a good designated hitter. I don’t need a stat to tell you that. By no means does the stat say that Matt Wieters therefore had a better 2010 than Vladimir Guerrero.

If Matt Wieters drives in a run, it goes up as one on the scoreboard. If he hits a double, he still only gets two bases. If Vladimir Guerrero drives in a run, it also counts as one. A double is still also two bases.

Give me that .300/29/115 season over the .249/11/55 season any day.

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Edit:

Even though opinions vary, you should really check out Camdendepot.com. His thoughts on the Orioles stand along side with the other great Oriole blogs on the web.