It makes sense that no Giant hitter is in the top 25 of fWAR, but it’s a little bit surprising to see three regulars in the bottom 25. Kevin Pillar is the fourth-worst full-time player, according to the FanGraphs fWAR leaderboard.
Oh wait, if you thought this was going to be about Mike Yastrzemski because it’s his picture in the header, sorry, it’s not. I just liked the picture. Although, his -0.2 fWAR in just 63 plate appearances is dire and is the same value as Steven Duggar, who has over four times as many plate appearances.
Duggar comes in as the 16th-worst, by the way, but Brandon Crawford is 11th. So, to put this another way: the Giants have the 4th, 11th, and 16th-worst regular position players. A third of the lineup is populated by literally three of the worst players in the league.
But let’s keep going.
Joe Panik has 0.3 fWAR, good for 33rd-worst. Evan Longoria’s 0.8 is 56th. Brandon Belt (0.8) is 61st-worst. Actually, Longoria and Belt are in an 11-way tie for 53rd place.
Anyway, out of 163 qualified players, two-thirds of the Giants’ lineup is worse than half the list. If you’re looking at it in pure rebuilding terms, then the scale of and breadth of the work is apparent and the idea of a timeline for future success seems ridiculous. Literally, where do they begin? Losing is a start, but they’ve been on that track for 2+ years now.
Topic starter: what do you think the WAR for individual Giants should be?