Jaytaft
As incredible as his hitting stats are, they'd likely be better if a healthy Trout was in the lineup.
9:46 AM Jul 5th

CharlesSaeger
As a note simply because I looked and wanted to throw it out there: of the other six games Ruth missed, 5 of them were against fellow southpaw starters. That might have influenced even the last game, the second time he sat against New York's George Mogridge of these six, or getting hit on the hand in the opener (I had missed that this was a double-header). I did a quick check of 1919, and a similar story.

None of this is really relevant to WAR, of course.
5:29 PM Jul 1st

CharlesSaeger
"Ruth was not a full-time hitter each year"

That's simply not true, and prompts an overlong response from me, mostly because I took a look at Ruth's May 1918 some time ago.

In 1918, Ruth was a pitcher-only for the first 18 games of the year. In the 19th game (May 6th in New York), Ruth started at first base. From then on, Ruth was a full-time pitcher/outfielder (occasionally a first baseman). Ruth played only 95 games that year because he:

* Missed 10 games when was a pitcher/pinch hitter in the first 18 games, the only time frame when this was indeed true;
* Missed 10 games in the latter half of May due to some kind of injury (checks Boston Globe, it was tonsillitis);
* The season was cut short due to the economic problems stemming from the Great War; the Red Sox played only 126 games, with the last game before the World Series coming on September 2nd. You can see a baseball fatigue if you look through the sport sections of the year; write-ups get shorter, and small bits like game times get dropped.

Aside from his tonsillitis bout, Ruth didn't have a gap out of the lineup for more than 3 games after May 6th. There were only two gaps of more than one game. He was out two games on July 3rd and 4th (morning game; he played the afternoon), quitting the team after some kind of dispute with Ed Barrow (it sounds like Ruth was asked to do something at bat and didn't, like he refused to bunt or something, and Ruth went back to his dad's house in Baltimore). He was out three games from August 25th to the 30th, after his father died from a fight with George Ruth Sr.'s brother-in-law. So, that's 10 games out for being a pitcher/pinch hitter, 10 games out for tonsillitis, 2 games out for a temper tantrum, and 3 games out his dad's funeral. Otherwise, he took off no more than a game at a time six times, one of which was the first game of a doubleheader, and another was the last game of the season (Ruth pitched the Series opener, so sitting him was understandable, given that the Red Sox had clinched).

1919 is even more clear: Ruth played 130 games, and the Red Sox played 138 games. Again, there were economic pressures shortening the season.
5:51 PM Jun 30th

DaveFleming
In terms of Win Shares leaders this year, the best I could pick out:

20 - Shohei
18 - Vlad Jr.
17 - Tatis Jr, Xander, Devers
15- Muncy
14 - Correa, Mullins, Castellanos, Trea Turner, Winker
13 - deGrom, Acuna, Schwarber
9:15 AM Jun 30th

ksclacktc
Can someone post a link to Win Shares leaders, as I saw posted earlier. I can't find it anywhere?
8:31 AM Jun 30th

W.T.Mons10
Is he saving the Angels a roster spot? Since he only starts every 6th game, they have to carry a sixth starter, Jose Quintana and his 7.12 ERA.
9:15 PM Jun 29th

tjmaccarone
I agree that WAR is undervaluing Ohtani, but for a different reason. Ohtani basically saves a team a roster spot by being the starting DH and a starting pitcher. That allows a team to stick an extra above-replacement level player on the roster and get some value from him, while if Ohtani were broken into two players, they wouldn't have that extra roster spot.
8:04 PM Jun 29th

elwarren
To add to my below comment regarding current Win Shares totals, Ohtani leads the majors. Two individuals are close behind, both batter/fielders: Boegarts and V. Guerrero Jr, who each currently have 18 WS. Remarkably, only Vlady has more WS attributable to Hitting alone (16.8 vs. Ohtani's 13.9)!
2:43 PM Jun 29th

elwarren
Seems like this may be an instance in which comparing players' Win Shares would be useful, as WS does not use the positional adjustment schema for the purpose of comparing like positional players (it is indifferent to this aspect, which I see as a positive). According to this site, Ohtani currently has 19 WS while deGrom has 13.

Breakdown is:

Ohtani:
Pitching: 5.5
Hitting: 13.9
Fielding: null

deGrom:
Pitching: 11.8
Hitting: 1.4
Fielding: 0
2:32 PM Jun 29th

DaveFleming
Ooooh...that's a good point, R Monkey! Ohtani does have a cost when he starts, with the Angels giving up the DH. I hadn't considered that. Thanks for mentioning that.
2:02 PM Jun 29th

Rallymonkey5
The position adjustment values Ohtani as a DH when he is the DH, and as a pitcher when he is on the mound. The position adjustment column is the sum of those, so at the end of the year it won’t be as much a negative as, for example, Nelson Cruz.

That might overstate his value a bit though. When deGrom hits in a national league game, the alternative is another crappy pitcher hitting. The Angels choose to let Ohtani hit, but they have an alternative better than that, they can use a real DH. And once Ohtani leaves the game they can’t get the DH back. This came back to bite them last week against the Giants, when they ran out of players and had 2 pitchers in a lineup while the Giants had none.

I’m not 100% sure how bbref handles that, but it would be reasonable to use the position adjustment of the DH for him in games where the DH is allowed.

The one place where Ohtani picks up some value not measured by WAR is allowing the team an extra roster spot, since he’s doing two jobs but only taking one place.
1:50 PM Jun 29th