Class Presidents: Active Career WAR Leaders by Year of Birth

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Bryce Harper is thus far the only player born in 1992 to reach the majors. His current Wins Above Replacement (WAR) (Baseball-reference version) career total of 1.4 is thus tops by default so far for his birth year.

Five players born in 1991 have reached the majors, but Mike Trout is the only one with positive WAR. At 4.8 career WAR with half a season still to play, Trout is on pace to have one of the great very-young-career starts ever, according to b-ref’s WAR. The only MLB hitters in history to reach more than 6.5 career WAR through the end of his age 20 season have been Ott, Cobb, Kaline, A-Rod, Mantle, Junior Griffey and Ted Williams.

Among players born in 1990, b-ref has Brett Lawrie as the career WAR leader with 8.3 WAR, ahead of Starlin Castro at 7.2. Fangraphs, however, has Castro ahead with 7.6 to Lawrie’s 5.5. Averaging b-ref and fangraphs puts Castro ahead 7.4 to 6.9.

More year-of-birth WAR leaders after the jump.

Most Career WAR (baseball-reference version), active MLB players by year of birth:
Born 1989: Jason Heyward, 11.9 (G.C.M. Stanton is a strong second at 9.5)
Born 1988: Clayton Kershaw 20.1 (Elvis Andrus is second at 9.3)
Born 1987: Austin Jackson 12.6 (Justin Upton is second at 11.7 — but fangraphs has Upton ahead of Jackson, 15.6 to 10.4)
Born 1986: Felix Hernandez 28.6 (McCutcheon, Sandoval and Wieters, in that order, are the leaders among the batters)
Born 1985: Evan Longoria 27.6
Born 1984: Matt Cain 28.0
Born 1983: Miguel Cabrera 40.4
Born 1982: David Wright 36.0
Born 1981: Carlos Zambrano 36.7
Born 1980: Albert Pujols 85.6
Born 1979: Adrian Beltre 56.3
Born 1978: Chase Utley 50.4
Born 1977: Roy Halladay 63.0 (just ahead of Carlos Beltran at 61.2)
Born 1976: Lance Berkman 48.9
Born 1975: Alex Rodriguez 111.5
Born 1974: Derek Jeter 68.3
Born 1973: Todd Helton 58.6
Born 1972: Chipper Jones 80.3
Born 1971: Jason Giambi 47.8 (retired players who were born in 1971 and accumulated higher career WAR than Jason: Pedro Martinez, I-Rod, Brian Giles)
Born 1970: Jim Thome 67.6
Born 1969: Mariano Rivera 52.7 (Ken Griffey, Jr., also born in 1969, reached 79.2 WAR)

The only players born before 1969 who have been active in the majors in 2012 are Omar Vizquel (born 1967, career WAR 40.8) and Jamie Moyer (born 1962, career WAR 44.8).

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11 years ago

Pujols 1980? No way. Earlier this year I read a comment to an article by a guy who said he played against Pujols in college, and when he got off the bus he and his teammates (18 adn 19 yr olds) thought he was the coach.

Cody

11 years ago

Reply to PP

His official birthdate is 1980. Although, I do agree with you personally that date is suspect since he is from the Dominican Republic (and it really hurts me to think hes older than 32 as an Angels fan), but he is officially born in 1980, so thats the date that must be used, not what we suspect.

Tristram12

11 years ago

Reply to PP

Albert’s two best years (by both WAR and OPS+) are 2008/2009 – his official age 28 & 29 seasons. Seems like he is aging appropriately to me.

11 years ago

Reply to Tristram12

I don;t know what’s appropriate when it comes to hitters, but Ted Williams had a higher WAR than Pujols’s highest ever WAR when he was 38, Morgan at 32, Gibson at 33 and 34, Ruth at 33, 35 and 36, Henderson at 31, Sosa at 32, Gehrig at 31, Mays at 31, 32, 33 and 34, R. Johnson at 38, Bonds 36 through 39 etc…

Tristram12

11 years ago

Reply to PP

PP, I was commenting on a traditional progression and decline of hitters. Much analysis has been done indicating hitters typically peak in their age 26-28 seasons, and then gradually declining from there. The rate of decline (while always unique to each individual) does typically follow a regular pattern, where the higher the player’s peak is,the longer they can stay competitive and hence have longer careers. Individual seasons vary, as you have pointed out, especially when you are talking about the best players the game has ever seen (Ruth, Williams, Mays, etc.).

Tristram12

11 years ago

Reply to PP

As a comparison, look at Cesar Cedeno. I would have a very easy time believing he is 4 or 5 years older than his official age. That makes more sense to me than believing his best years were when he was 21/22, and he was done at 35.

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to PP

King Albert has always looked physically more mature than his stated age, going back to his high school years when opposing coaches used to complain that they thought he was already college age. The age rumors also probably served to hold down his draft position as scouts didn’t quite know what they had based on age and in trying to project him. He probably didn’t help the rumors by marrying a woman three years his senior. Yet to believe Pujols is not his stated age means he and his family made a conscious decision to lie about his age entering… Read more »

11 years ago

Reply to PP

the first time I saw Pujols play a game the announcer, can’t remember who it was was, said he was 23 and I didn’t believe it then, as for birtelcom’s comment below, that’s a good comparison, but if you look at James’ SI cover when he “The Chosen One” he looks his age, being a freak physically and looking older than you are quite different

11 years ago

Reply to PP

anyway, that contract’s a disaster IMO

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to PP

A ten-year contract to a player who is 32 and showing signs of decline, no matter how great, is questionable.

If the Angels thought he was even one or two years older and gave him that contract, well good luck to them.

Father Time remains undefeated for those who stick around long enough.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to MikeD

Unless you throw a knuckleball?

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to MikeD

Father Time has been working on hitting the knuckleball. He’ll figure it out eventually!

Jason Z

11 years ago

Reply to PP

I saw Albert in his first spring training with the Cards after his single A season. It was the first week of games and by the fifth inning he had homered, doubled and made a nice catch and throw from right field. I couldn’t believe how good he was. He was clearly the best player on the field, and it was obvious. At that point LaRussa wouldn’t admit that Albert had made the team. He did a week later. What I will never forget is how great he was and how much more physically developed he looked in comparison to… Read more »

Editor

Doug

11 years ago

If Felix Hernandez was born in 1986, I was born in 1886.

Evil Squirrel

11 years ago

Let’s hear it for the class of ’75! For the first time ever, I get to be an A-Rod fan….

Max

11 years ago

Reply to Evil Squirrel

I know how you feel, Arod has me by 2 months and about a quarter of a billion dollars.

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

Reply to Max

Me too. I can’t believe he is a veteran player now.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Yes, there is reason to be suspicious of birth year information from some countries. But take LeBron James for example — to me this is a guy (from the good old US of A) who seems to have had the physical maturity of a 27-year-old since he was 16. Some guys are one-in-a-million physical freaks, and to some extent that’s precisely what makes it possible for them to become athletic superstars. I don’t think you can necessarily conclude that they are lying about their age solely from their physical appearance. I’m not naive, but I do think at least some… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

LeBron James is a great example-so is Amare Stoudemire to a lesser extent. He looked 27 when he was 19 also. Look at Jason Heyward right now; he could pass for a 30-year old very easily, so I think accusing someone of lying about their age is something we should be hesitant to do without a shred of proof.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

edit: accusing someone of lying about their age IS something we should be hesitant to do.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

I made the edit in the original text for you.

Steven

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Then there’s Greg Oden. First time I saw a picture of him, I thought he was some NBA player of a not-too-recent vintage. Turned out, he was a freshman at Ohio State.

11 years ago

I don’t really care what his age is, the numbers speak for themselves and they’re at the highest level ever, but his decline appears underway

Tristram12

11 years ago

Reply to PP

Decline? yes, but I don’t believe it is a significant one. Since May 5th, his slash line is .315/.385/.560/.945 – which is better than last year. I think giving him 27 games to transition to a new, harder league should be forgiven.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Tristram12

Also, Pujols’ excellent postseason performance from last year might be getting forgotten too soon. In 17 games, he slashed:
.353/.450/.691/1.141 with 5 HRs. So I’m not so convinced he’s in a deep decline either.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Pujols’ struggles at the beginning of the year were truly bizarre. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone of his talent level play so poorly for such a long stretch. I kept thinking that someone must have switched him with an exact looking duplicate who had never played baseball before. And I don’t buy the adjustment theory for two reasons: 1) due to interleague play and World Series, Albert had plenty of experience against American League pitchers and in American League parks. 2) plenty of players who are far less talented than Albert have had no problem moving to the… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

I would say if you threw in the pressure of having to live up to one of the biggest, fattest contracts in MLB history and then combine it with the adjustment factor of switching leagues, I think there was obviously something there. And it just kind of snowballed for awhile before Pujols was able to turn it around. I think it’s fair to say at this point that Pujols doesn’t hit well when he’s distracted. Although not as severe as this year, he did also have an April/May swoon in 2011 with free agency looming at the end of the… Read more »

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

his avg, obp, slg, ops, ops+, war, etc have declined 2 straight yrs and it appears this will be the 3rd in a row, granted they were at an insane level in 2009, but it’s still a decline and that contract has 9 more yrs to go

enjoy the 4th…

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

Bstar – perhaps, though I remain unconvinced. I see the adjustment factor as basically being zero. Again, he has lots of experience against American League pitchers and in American league parks and has never shown any issues. Not to mention that he had to continually face new pitchers in the National League and didn’t show any adjustment issues. Plus his early season struggles included struggling in the road where he presumably would face a lot less pressure. As for performing under pressure, what’s more pressure than appearing in the World Series, where he’s posted a career .968 OPS in 16… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

Ed, OK but consider the plights of recent signees to big contracts: Carl Crawford last year, Adam Dunn last year, Jayson Werth last year, Dan Uggla for the first half of last year, Pujols for the first 2 months this year. Signing a big contract and coming out of the gate underperforming is not a rare occurrence at all, especially recently. PP, I have full intention of enjoying Pujols this year and every year he plays for the rest of his career. It will be a lot of fun and very interesting to see how the best baseball player of… Read more »

Mike L

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

The most likely explanation is that a little of everything is happening to Albert. He’s a little older and has entered the gradual decline phase of his career. He’s adjusting. And he wouldn’t be human if he didn’t feel some pressure from the big contract-and from leaving St. Louis. He can deal with everything but the natural decline so it’s reasonable to expect him to be productive for a number of years, barring injury. He’s not likely to be the 2009 Albert. And I guess that points up the comparative folly of these enormously long contracts.