Best Baseball WAR

Over the past several years baseball statistics advanced considerably and new categories now exist. WAR is Wins Above Replacement and measures both offensive and defensive contributions. A WAR score of 0.0 means the player is equal to replacement level (a random minor league talent), 1.0 means the player added 1 Win to his team's total, -1 means the player subtracted one Win from his team's total, etc.

According to this stat, the best offensive season was not one of Barry Bonds incredible seasons, not the Roger Maris 61 HR year, but Babe Ruth's 1923 season. Ruth hit more HR in 9 other years but in 1923 his batting average was .393 and he stole 17 bases and lead the league in defensive WAR. This was the only season Ruth won the MVP Award and was the season he set the record for walks in a season at 170. Bonds later broke this record a couple of years after breaking the single season HR record. In fact Bonds's 2001 record season was only the 7th best WAR ranked season and Ruth owns 4 of the best 6 seasons.

However, the best WAR ever belongs to a 19th century pitcher named Old Hoss Radbourn. Only 133 seasons rank half as good as his 1884 performance.73 starts, 73 complete games, 11 shutouts, 1 save, 59 Wins, 1.38 ERA, .922 WHIP, 441 strikeouts, in an amazing 678.2 IP, facing 2672 batters! For comparison the best modern pitching season according to WAR is Dwight Gooden in 1985 - he pitched 276.2 IP and faced 1065 batters. Last year Roy Halladay lead MLB with 250.2 IP last year and Felix Hernandez lead MLB with 1001 batters faced last year. Old Hoss threw nearly twice as much and allowed nearly half as many earned runs. Not since Pedro Martinez's great 2000 season has a pitched rated half as well at WAR as Old Hoss did. 

Of course 19th century statistics are completely foreign and probably comparable to amateur league stats. The best modern WAR is Steve Carlton in 1972. 41 games started, 30 complete games, 8 shutouts, 27 Wins and 310 strikeouts, 1.97 ERA, .993 WHIP, in 346.1 IP and 1351 batters faced. The first of 4 Cy Young seasons for Carlton and truly a phenomenal performance.