WAR is one of the only newer stats that I actually care about. Some of the others just take the fun out of baseball when people start yapping about them. WAR rewards complete players. If you're slow and awful on defense, WAR reminds you that your team isn't getting the greatest value, despite the offense. One-tool hitters feel the wrath of WAR. Mark Belanger is one of the greatest defensive players ever, plus he had a few decent hitting seasons (mostly due to walks/steals), yet he was 41.0 WAR. Almost all of that is defense.
I'll say the one player who surprised me was Willie Montanez with 1.6 career WAR. I never saw him play, he retired in 1982, so my surprise was from what I remembered as a kid. I got some slightly older cards and remembered seeing the very small print on the back of his 1982 Topps card, with some big RBI seasons (101, 99, 96). I always figured he was a better overall player, but he lost a lot of value for poor defense, plus he's one of the few players with a below 50% success rate stealing bases and more than a handful of attempts. He homered 30 times one year, yet he hit just 139 homers in 14 years.
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Please check out my books on baseball history. They include the bio of star second baseman Dots Miller. A book featuring 20 Moonlight Graham players who got into just one game. Another with 13 players who were with the Pittsburgh Pirates during the regular season, but never played a game. There's also one about 27 baseball families, as well as a day-by-day look at the worst team in Pittsburgh Pirates history. All five can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-D...hor/B0DH87Q2DS
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