I always thought of Edgar as similar to Bernie Williams in terms of hitting, and of course Bernie played a prime position, and well.

Why do people always bring up WAR as it relates to player's value if it doesn't relate to a player's value? There is such a huge disparity between Edgar and Ortiz in terms of WAR despite Edgar having a significantly shorter career. How do you explain that difference? Ortiz's best output was 6.4 in any one season. Edgar's is 7.0, and he went on to eclipse Ortiz's benchmark 2 other times when he put up seasons of 6.5. Ortiz was only worth 6 or more wins that one single time. Edgar put up a WAR higher than 6.0 five times.

What IS the explanation? Often the answer in counterintuitive comparisons like that is that one guy just didn't draw walks, but that's not true of Ortiz.

I would say the explanation is Edgar was a superior player who was more valuable to his team.

But that's subjective, in terms of the WAR calculation do you know?

Do I have to? It's a stat referenced all the time in discussions about a player's value.

Edgar's WAR is a statistical anomaly that can't be explained. I can't even imagine how they calculated it. He's right around the level of Fisk Murray and Gwynn who all had significantly better and longer careers than Edgar. I'm not sure how they calculate for a DH because for other players defense is part of the equation. I doubt that anyone thinks that Edgar had as much of an impact on the game as Eddie Murray. And Ortiz numbers dwarf Edgar. Thats why a lot of fans like hard numbers - they never lie. 500 hr is more than 300.