This past decade brought upon a new crop of MLB players, catapulting the game to a new level. Here are the best players, pound for pound. at every position of the 2010s.
The 2010s will mostly be remembered by the game’s acceptance of the analytical approach to building a team. It will also be the decade in which MLB Players adopted the launch angle and exit velocity, the idea that grounders in the big leagues are outs unless you hit the ball hard as hell.
On the other side, we saw pitchers throw harder than ever before and fool batters with breaking balls that resembled those you threw in your backyard Wiffle Ball games. Bullpens played a larger role in games as the data provided more insight into a starter’s effectiveness later in games.
In other words, the game was revolutionized and barely resembles that of even the decade prior. With the change came fewer viewers and declining stadium attendance numbers as purists struggled to recognize the game they grew up loving.
In the end, It’s their loss as the slew of talent the game has produced appears to be better than ever before. With hitters like Mike Trout threatening to take the mantle of greatest of all time by a wide margin and pitchers like Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander dominating hitters late into their 30’s, there has never been a time like this in baseball.
In an effort to recognize the game’s increased level of play, I’ve decided to compile a list of MLB players who are the best, pound for pound, at every position. To determine this, I’ve taken the all-encompassing fWAR stat and divided it by the number of games played in an effort to determine how much of each game a player impacts.
At some positions, the answer is quite predictable. In others, you might feel a sense of shock. At the end of the day, bias was taken out of the equation and each player was determined strictly by the numbers.
Without further ado, here the best MLB Players at every position of the 2010s.