Trivia

I crunched Javier's stats in Veteran's (10/10) from the card app. I can't tell if he would be a * or non* SP
ob/slg/ops

01 S7 L 145/290/436 R 212/301/514 bk 2 wp 2 hold -3
03 S7 L 182/301/484 R 172/293/465 bk 2 wp 11 hold -3
09 S7 L 167/296/463 R133/157/291 bk 0 wp 6 Hold -2

I recall hearing Bret Gardner's WAR being around 40.
I was stunned.
Is he the positional player?

Gardner is a tremendous defensive OF, and much of his WAR value derives from his defense. In a good offensive year, such as 2010, he can show a total WAR as high as 7.4. I watched a lot of Yankees baseball in 2010, and his defensive performance in LF was insane. SOM rates him this way in that year: Defense: lf-1(-2)e1 / cf-2e1. His offensive card looks pretty good, too, with high OBP, base stealing and running speed. He might make an attractive small-ball player, depending on pricing.

The other attractive card would be 2017. Defense is lf-1(-3)e0 / cf-3e0. The card is less balanced (4R), but with some power against lefties. That might make it an effective platoon card, again depending on pricing.

His 2019 card isn't available yet, but Baseball-Reference ranks Gardner #3 in WAR on the star-studded Yankee team of 2019, partly because he was one of the few reasonably durable players on the team.

Thanks for the reminder about Gardner. I think I will try nominating either his 2010 or 2017 card. If Andy wants to post his numbers for 2010 and 2017 (or send me a pm), that would be helpful.

I'm shocked to see Radke on the list. I never thought much of him. I'll have to look up his stats!

Steve, I had the same attitude towards Radke, but he was very durable (9 seasons of 200+ IP) and although he never had a "peak" season, he was very consistently above average. In fact, his 113 career ERA+ approaches the numbers for some HOFers. An underrated player from the late 90s / early 2000s.