What else am I going to do during a rain delay? You couldn’t pay me to watch Sports Science, so naturally, I’m comparing the win values tonight’s second-string Yankees lineup to the one they fielded Sunday when they clinched the AL East.
I used FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement (WAR) to compare each lineup. Sunday’s lineup had a total WAR of 30.2. The average WAR of a batter in that lineup would then be 3.35, or roughly the value of David DeJesus.
The lineup Luke Hochevar will face in Yankee Stadium tonight, if it ever stops raining, has a total WAR of 12.3. That’s an average of 1.37, which is a little better than John Buck.
One of these lineups is responsible for a 100-win (so far) season and a playoff berth. The other…well, the other one is still WAY better than the lineup KC used on Sunday (average WAR of 0.82), and that one was better than the one they’ll use tonight (average WAR of 0.72).
In related news, the Royals are not a good baseball team.
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