So I guess it doesn't account for RF being hard as hell to play in Fenway?
Also it's very unfair to take an average stat per position when Jackie Bradley Jr. is tanking the average league wide.
Heh
Edit: and that does seem like a much more flawed stat than I thought. Betts could easily play CF and suddenly he would lead the league by a mile? Weird.
If his defense was good, yes. If it was atrocious, probably not. It is also worth noting there are different types of WAR. fWAR, and bWAR are the ones most commonly used. Those stand for Fangraphs and Baseball Reference. They use slightly different metric to make their calculations. They don't give results that are exactly the same. For example:
fWAR as of today:
1. Mookie Betts, 3.2
2. Jose Ramirez, 3.1
3. Mike Trout, 2.8
3. Francisco Lindor, 2.8
5. Manny Machado, 2.4
5. Aaron Judge, 2.4
bWAR as of today:
1. Mike Trout, 3.5
2. Mookie Betts, 3.1
3. Francisco Lindor, 3.0
4. Jose Ramirez, 2.8
5. Andrelton Simmons, 2.3
5. Kevin Pillar, 2.3
5. Aaron Judge, 2.3
And Manny Macado has 2.2 bWAR. Usually you don't use these lists as absolutes, but to separate groups of players. So Mookie Betts, Jose Ramirez, Mike Trout, and Francisco Lindor all appear to be about on the same level. With perhaps Trout or Betts being standouts, depending on what you value more. Then you have the second standout group with Macahdo, Judge, Simmons... interestingly Pillar only has 1.5 fWAR, so I'm guessing bWAR puts a high emphasis on his fielding.
