Interesting thing about 39-year-old Pete Rose on the 1980 Phillies:
Played in all 162 games (nobody else on the club played in more than 150.) Batted a respectable .282. Led Philadelphia with 185 hits (including a NL-leading 42 doubles). Was second on the team in runs scored and third in OBP. Sure, I'm cherry-picking a bit here, but Rose always struck me as an important piece to the puzzle in the Phils' World Series title in '80.
Yet.. his WAR is actually a *negative* number. At -0.4, it's the second-worst on the entire team, ahead of only seldom-used utility infielder John Vukovich.
Since WAR became a thing, I've never understood that.
Interesting thing about 39-year-old Pete Rose on the 1980 Phillies:
Played in all 162 games (nobody else on the club played in more than 150.) Batted a respectable .282. Led Philadelphia with 185 hits (including a NL-leading 42 doubles). Was second on the team in runs scored and third in OBP. Sure, I'm cherry-picking a bit here, but Rose always struck me as an important piece to the puzzle in the Phils' World Series title in '80.
Yet.. his WAR is actually a *negative* number. At -0.4, it's the second-worst on the entire team, ahead of only seldom-used utility infielder John Vukovich.
Since WAR became a thing, I've never understood that.