Like I explained during the hitters segment, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is supposed to show the value of a player with one number. But because starters are compared with starters, and relievers with relievers, the Tampa Bay Rays and Ryan Yarbrough sort of broke the formula this season, because he threw like a starter, but almost always in relief. In other words, he was compared to relievers instead of what he actually was: more or less a starter, just starting from the 2nd inning. His 0.9 WAR severely underestimates his value to the Rays. This will probably be remedied at some point.
The WAR numbers come from baseball-reference.com:
| 2006-2018 | |||
| 1 | Will Harris | Staunton ’03 | 5.6 |
| 2 | Chris Devenski | Woodstock ’11 | 4.8 |
| 3 | Chris Perez | Staunton ’04 | 4.4 |
| 4 | Tyler Thornburg | Winchester ’08 | 4.0 |
| 5 | Brandon Beachy | Woodstock ’08 | 3.1 |
| 6 | Chad Kuhl | New Market ’12 | 2.6 |
| 7 | David Carpenter | Covington ’04 | 2.0 |
| 8 | Josh Edgin | Winchester ’07 | 1.7 |
| 9 | Adam Liberatore | Waynesboro ’07-8 | 1.0 |
| Emilio Pagan | Harrisonburg ’10 | 1.0 | |
| 11 | Ryan Yarbrough | Luray ’12 | 0.9 |
| 12 | Robby Scott | Covington ’10 | 0.6 |
| 13 | Jack Leathersich | Haymarket ’09 | 0.4 |
| Kyle McGrath | Staunton ’11 | 0.4 | |
| Justin Anderson | Front Royal ’13 | 0.4 |
Additions: Yarbrough and Justin Anderson
Changes:
- Adam Liberatore and Emilio Pagan slipped past Robby Scott
| All-Time | |||
| 1 | Jimmy Key | Winchester ’82 | 49.6 |
| 2 | Rick Honeycutt | Charlottesville ’73 | 22.3 |
| 3 | Roberto Hernandez | Front Royal | 19.0 |
| 4 | Mike Caldwell | Charlottesville ’68 | 18.7 |
| 5 | Brad Ziegler | New Market ’00 | 13.0 |
| Greg Harris | Front Royal | 13.0 | |
| 7 | Al Holland | Charlottesville | 11.9 |
| 8 | Walt Terrell | Staunton | 10.7 |
| 9 | Mike Adams | Front Royal | 10.3 |
| 10 | Sammy Stewart | Staunton ’74 | 9.6 |
| 11 | Javier Lopez | New Market ’96 | 8.8 |
| 12 | George Stone | Staunton | 6.8 |
| 13 | Jon Rauch | Harrisonburg ’98 | 6.5 |
| 14 | Ed Lynch | Madison | 6.3 |
| 15 | Chris Nabholz | Front Royal | 5.6 |
| Will Harris | Staunton ’03 | 5.6 | |
| 17 | Rich Rodriguez | Staunton | 5.3 |
| Greg Hibbard | Staunton | 5.3 | |
| 19 | Bob Patterson | Madison ’81 | 4.8 |
| Chris Devenski | Woodstock ’11 | 4.8 |
With the Harman additions (Holland, Terrell, Stone, Lynch), many names moved down a bit. Devenski was tied for 16th after 2017, for example.
The average Hall of Fame starting pitcher put up 73.4 career WAR, by the way.
We have the major league seasonal records yet!
