Clint Barmes and W.A.R.

You would be hard-pressed to find a stat that supports Clint Barmes these days.  Whether it is his terrible batting average of .205 (the lowest of the regular starters), or his 50 strikeouts.  However, I will look past these stats to try and determine what Barmes's real value (if any) is to the team.

There is no better stat to start to measure a players value then WAR.  WAR (Wins Above Replacement) a statistic that attempts to measure a players contributions to the team.  You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is pretty darn all-inclusive and provides a handy reference point. WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth +6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth +3.5 wins.

Clint Barmes is worth an astoundingly low -.2 WAR. This means that if Barmes got hurt today we would win on average .2 more games.  So because of this we are forced to ask, "Why is he still starting?" My answer to this is that they believe he will regain some of his past hitting, and raise his average.  Now, there is some merit to that argument because Barmes has never hit below .235 in a full season, and his WAR in the past 4 season have all been above .5.

In my opinion however they should take him out of the starting lineup, and replace him, temporarily with Josh Harrison.  Harrison is no stud this season either, batting .231, but his OBP is much better. Clint Barmes's OBP is a terrible .225 compared to Harrison's respectable .291.  Harrison's WAR is also .7, while not much it is still much better then -.2.  Still I do not see Harrison as a long term solution.

The Pirates long term solution at shortstop should be Alen Hanson.  Hanson is currently in A ball with the West Virginia Power, where he is tearing it up. Hanson is only 19, and yet he is batting .324 with 10 homeruns.  He also is blazing fast swiping 19 stolen bases so far this season.  Hanson in my mind has all the tools to be a stud at the Major League level, and replace Harrison or Barmes.  The problem is though he is only 19, so he won't be in the Majors for at least another 2 years.  In the mean time the Pirates should look for other options to Barmes, because the more he plays, the less likely we are to win.