Finally finished roster parsing and career tabulation scripts and we’re all up to date. In this part we’re only going to show top 10 MLB players according to their total career numbers and top ten Cubs.
In subsequent parts we’ll do historical rankings as well as rank the current MLB rosters based upon career. For now let’s look at the top ten players in the MLB according to their accumulated career from when they started until the end of 2017.
| Rank | WAA | Name_TeamID | Pos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +001+ | 111.0 | Albert_Pujols_ANA | BAT | |
| +002+ | 84.8 | Miguel_Cabrera_DET | BAT | |
| +003+ | 76.1 | Clayton_Kershaw_LAN | PITCH | |
| +004+ | 53.7 | Ryan_Braun_MIL | BAT | |
| +005+ | 53.6 | Felix_Hernandez_SEA | PITCH | |
| +006+ | 44.2 | Robinson_Cano_SEA | BAT | |
| +007+ | 43.4 | Edwin_Encarnacion_CLE | BAT | |
| +008+ | 43.2 | Zack_Greinke_ARI | PITCH | |
| +009+ | 41.6 | Justin_Verlander_HOU | PITCH | |
| +010+ | 40.8 | Cole_Hamels_TEX | PITCH |
Those are your top ten according to this data model who are currently playing on an MLB roster. Let’s look at the Cubs.
| Rank | WAA | Name_TeamID | Pos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +031+ | 29.3 | Jon_Lester_CHN | PITCH | |
| +053+ | 17.9 | Anthony_Rizzo_CHN | BAT | |
| +063+ | 15.3 | Kyle_Hendricks_CHN | PITCH | |
| +067+ | 15.0 | Kris_Bryant_CHN | BAT | |
| +078+ | 12.6 | Steve_Cishek_CHN | PITCH | |
| +081+ | 12.3 | Jose_Quintana_CHN | PITCH | |
| +083+ | 12.2 | Ben_Zobrist_CHN | BAT | |
| +084+ | 11.8 | Yu_Darvish_CHN | PITCH | |
| +123+ | 8.0 | Pedro_Strop_CHN | PITCH | |
| +167+ | 5.6 | Justin_Wilson_CHN | PITCH |
Not bad at all. Eight guys in the top 100 out of all 30 teams. An average distribution would yield 3 or 4 for an average team. When we use career data to rank MLB teams according to starters, relief, and lineups we will only count the last 3 years of service. This will level the playing field for the young guys and knock guys like Pujols down a few notches. That will be fodder for Part 2 of this series. Until then….