Super Stats Pack: Game 35 (Team/Value)

This second Super Stat Pack covers team stats and WAR/surplus value (what Brett dotes on as his “value survey”).

In essence, every five games, there will be a Super Stat Pack out, alternating between White Sox Top 10s (Game 10, 20 ...) and this, the team/WAR report (Game 15, 25 ...).

Value Survey

FanGraphs, our stats partner, generates dollar values for WAR. For the White Sox roster, FanGraphs is valuing 1.0 WAR at $7,822,222. By prorating salary, we can subtract salary paid from each player’s dollar war value to generate Surplus Value.

Right now, Yoan Moncada remains the team leader, at about $10.4 million in surplus value. The top pitcher surplus value, Reynaldo López at around $2.6 million, is just the sixth-best surplus value on the team.

There’s one last additional set of columns, another feature of Brett’s “Value Survey” of the past, the Last Value/Change. Use that column to see whether a player has gained or lost value for the team since the last Stats Pack. You’ll see “last week” comparisons for the team batting and pitching totals, too.

There are a couple of tweaks and additions to the value survey this time around. One is a prorating of salaries for players moving between Chicago and Charlotte. Understanding that some veterans may have different arrangements with a team, players are paid the prorated minimum major league salary when on a major league roster; I’d mistakenly thought a player who made the majors even for one day qualified for the major league minimum salary for their entire season. That has knocked down the White Sox’s total salary paid by a bit.

Also, to offer perspective on how the White Sox are doing relative to the league, I’ve included a generic “average” MLB team (average payroll, average WAR production) to use as a basis of comparison against the White Sox. As you can see, the club isn’t even close to average in value this season.

White Sox vs. average team breakdown

The average MLB team has 7.0 WAR, which is $54,724,257 in value, $29,375,210 in salary and $25,349,056 in surplus value.

The White Sox have 4.5 WAR, which is $35,200,000 in value, $15,193,497 in salary and $20,006,503 in surplus value.

So, the White Sox are 2.5 WAR worse than average, which is $19,524,267 worse in average value, despite spending just $14,181,713 less in salary.

Thus the White Sox surplus value is $5,342,554 less than the average team. Another way to look at it, on a per-game the White Sox are getting $152,644 less than the average major league team in surplus value.

Quick Peeks

Top Hitter Value: Yoan Moncada, $10,500,000

Top Pitcher Value: James Shields, $3,900,000

Lowest Hitter Value: Adam Engel, -$6,400,000

Lowest Pitcher Value: Carson Fulmer, -$3,500,000

Top Hitter Surplus Value: Yoan Moncada, $10,383,400

Top Pitcher Surplus Value: Reynaldo López, $2,783,400

Lowest Hitter Surplus Value: Adam Engel, -$6,517,024

Lowest Pitcher Surplus Value: Carson Fulmer, -$3,617,024

Biggest Hitter Surplus Value Jump: Daniel Palka, $2,049,074

Biggest Pitcher Surplus Value Jump: Luis Avilán, -$904,600

Biggest Hitter Surplus Value Drop: José Abreu, -$1,856,000

Biggest Pitcher Surplus Value Drop: Carson Fulmer, -$4,417,024

Team Stats

The White Sox team stats are given some context, with MLB rankings. Again, there is an additional column added this week that indicates where the White Sox ranked as of the last Stat Pack, to better see whether the team is trending up or down in particular areas.

Offensively, the closest the White Sox are to the top of any category is stolen bases, second in the league, at 32. They are last in scoring runs.

On the pitching side, the White Sox are last in baseball in walks per nine, ground ball percentage, FIP and xFIP, and second to last in baseball in strikeouts per nine, left on base percentage and ERA.

The big movers this time around:

• Chicago’s 44 home runs place them tied for 14th in the league after being tied for fifth 10 games ago.
• With -3.1 baserunning runs above average, the White Sox have fallen from 13th in baseball to 25th.
• With -7.1 offensive runs above average, the team has fallen from 12th to 18th.
• At 1.0 pitching WAR, the White Sox fell from tied for 21st to 27th.
• With 1.21 HR/9, the team dropped from 10th to 18th.

If you would like any of these stats defined, it’s going to be way easier for me to direct you to FanGraphs for either offensive or pitching terms.