WAR: Wins Above Replacement. The stat that is supposed to combine a player’s total value (hitting, baserunning, and defense for position palyers) into one number, WAR is maligned by some, and the gospel for others. Oh and by the way, different websites have different numbers, too; Fangraphs and Baseball-reference don’t come out at the exact same place. (I use baseball-reference for this list.) Let’s take a look:
| 2006-2018 | |||
| 1 | Jason Kipnis | Covington ’06-7 | 21.8 |
| 2 | Dan Murphy | Luray ’05 | 18.8 |
| 3 | Jon Jay | Staunton ’04 | 14.0 |
| 4 | Yonder Alonso | Luray ’06 | 9.1 |
| 5 | Collin Cowgill | Covington ’05 | 4.3 |
| 6 | Cory Spangenberg | Winchester ’10 | 3.3 |
| 7 | Ryan Schimpf | Luray ’08 | 2.4 |
| 8 | Tyler White | Haymarket ’10 | 1.8 |
| 9 | Tommy La Stella | Haymarket ’09 | 1.1 |
| 10 | Joey Butler | New Market ’06 | 0.5 |
| 11 | Eddy Rodriguez | Luray ’06-07 | 0.2 |
Even though Jason Kipnis has played in 280 fewer games than Daniel Murphy, he rates better in this statistic, almost all because of defense. Kipnis is 1.2 defensive WAR for his career, while Murphy is -6.7. On pure offense, Murphy has 2.6 more WAR than Kipnis. Fascinating.
The only change on this list is Tyler White, who went from tied with Eddy Rodriguez up to #8 with his 1.6 WAR 2018 season.
| All-Time | |||
| 1 | Steve Finley | Harrisonburg ’85 | 44.0 |
| 2 | Reggie Sanders | Winchester ’87 | 39.6 |
| 3 | Brett Gardner | New Market ’03-04 | 37.5 |
| 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 | Jason Kipnis | Covington ’06-7 | 21.8 |
| 9 | David Eckstein | Harrisonburg ’95-6 | 20.8 |
| 10 | Aubrey Huff | Staunton ’97 | 20.4 |
| 11 | Brandon Inge | Waynesboro ’96 | 19.0 |
| 12 | Dan Murphy | Luray ’05 | 18.8 |
| 13 | Gene Richards | Harrisonburg | 18.6 |
| 14 | Juan Pierre | Harrisonburg ’97 | 16.9 |
| 15 | Johnny Grubb | Charlottesville | 16.6 |
| 16 | Jon Jay | Staunton ’04 | 14.0 |
| 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 |
Additions: None
Changes: Kipnis passed David Eckstein to move into 8th place.
Steve Finley falls short of the Hall of Fame average for center fielders: the average is 71.2 career WAR.
