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Thursday, April 01, 2010
Character does influence the performance of other players…
[Editor’s note: if you are coming here from other sites or searches, be forewarned that this blog post was placed on April 1.]
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Using a Google news search, I created two groups of players - those with good character and/or were a “good clubhouse presence” and those who were considered the opposite. Both groups combined represented about 6% of all players.
Then I did a WOWY for 2003-2009.
I found a large difference in the performances of the teammates of both groups. The difference between the good and bad groups was almost 30 points in wOBA, with a standard error of around 10 points, so the difference is very significant.
If we accept that difference at face value, a good or bad clubhouse guy can influence his entire team to the tune of 15 points in wOBA, which is the equivalent of 8 wins a year!
I know that sounds like a lot, but even if we estimate that the real value is 5 points in wOBA (for no particular reason), that is almost 3 wins a year!
No wonder teams seem to be obsessed with these kinds of players and why even progressive teams like the Mariners keep players like Griffey on their rosters.
My guess is that Tango is aware of this effect but cannot discuss or reveal it because of his non-disclosure agreements with SEA and/or Toronto.
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