The previous category, batting average, is something even casual baseball fans understand. This one, Wins Above Replacement, is a little bit more difficult. The modern stat, attempting to measure a player’s value, including offense and defense, is described here.

And since ATVL can look up the stat (using baseball-reference.com), we’ll take a look in these pages….

2006-2017
1 Jason Kipnis Covington ’06-7 20.5
2 Dan Murphy Luray ’05 19.9
3 Jon Jay Staunton ’04 13.1
4 Yonder Alonso Luray ’06 7.9
5 Collin Cowgill Covington ’05 4.3
6 Cory Spangenberg Winchester ’10 2.6
7 Ryan Schimpf Luray ’08 2.1
8 Tommy La Stella Haymarket ’09 0.9
9 Joey Butler New Market ’06 0.5
10 Eddy Rodriguez Luray ’06-07 0.2
Tyler White Haymarket ’10 0.2

You could take issue with the top two, as Murphy has clearly been the better hitter in his career, but according to b-r.com, Kipnis makes up the difference (and then some) with defense and baserunning.

All-Time
1 Steve Finley Harrisonburg ’85 44.0
2 Reggie Sanders Winchester ’87 39.6
3 Brett Gardner New Market ’03-04 35.2
4 Mo Vaughn Harrisonburg ’87 27.0
5 John Kruk New Market ’81 25.0
6 Mike Lowell Waynesboro ’93 24.8
7 Chris Hoiles Harrisonburg 23.4
8 David Eckstein Harrisonburg ’95-6 20.8
9 Jason Kipnis Covington ’06-7 20.5
10 Aubrey Huff Staunton ’97 20.4
11 Dan Murphy Luray ’05 19.9
12 Brandon Inge Waynesboro ’96 19.0
13 Gene Richards Harrisonburg 18.6
14 Juan Pierre Harrisonburg ’97 16.9
15 Johnny Grubb Charlottesville 16.6
16 Jon Jay Staunton ’04 13.1
17 Adam Everett Winchester ’96 12.6
18 Denny Walling Waynesboro ’75 12.2
19 Luke Scott Staunton 12.1
20 Tom Brookens Waynesboro 11.6

Don’t overlook Brett Gardner up there at #3- only 4.4 WAR behind Reggie Sanders at #2. Brett ended up with 4.9 WAR in 2017, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could be #2 all-time by the end of this upcoming season…

Murphy
Brett Gardner slides into 2nd base in 2015