This is the 1999 Colorado Rockies. Now I get that it's Coors but seriously, Brian Bohanon puts up a 3.1 WAR season with an ERA over 6.00? Is that a glitch? Is there any comparable statline in the history of baseball?

22 comments

  1. It’s not just Coors, it’s Coors at the absolute height of the Steroid Era.

  2. No, not a glitch. WAR is park-adjusted, so it controls for how ballparks play, and for weird hitting environments. Pre-humidor Coors Field was one of the weirdest hitting environments of all time, so considering how the ball was flying out of there, a 6 ERA was actually not that bad. There may not be a comparable stat line, or ballpark to hit in.

    See also: Dante Bichette’s insane offensive stats and hilariously low WAR totals.

  5. The Rockies are credited with an awful defense that year which affects WAR too. They’re last by 32 runs at -87. Next worst was -55.

    Bohanan in particular had a defense rating of -.56 in 1999, in 2000 it was .35. Since he was still pitching in Coors, that’s a big part of why he had the same WAR both seasons despite a nearly 1.5 ERA difference.

  6. WAR is wins above replacement, so it means how many more wins would x team have with this player than the average replacement player for that position/year. 1999 was the height of the steroid era, so this is the highest period of runs scored in mlb history. Rarely any starting pitchers had an ERA under 4, and having an ERA around 4 was very good. They also played at Coors field which is notorious for being a hitters park to the point that it’s extremely difficult to pitch there. So if you take an ERA of 6 in the absolute worst environment possible for a pitcher, it wouldve been much lower anywhere else or in a normal season. So if an average pitcher were to pitch in that situation, they likely would’ve been a lot worse than the guy with the 6.02 ERA

  7. War is a goofy stat based on a mythical average with a ton of variables and inaccurate for its “name”.

    It’s a gd estimated number of runs(wins) contributed by a player through offensive actions which can be denied by good fielding and pitching.

    War essentially tells you how many runs a player nets his team, not how many wins they contributes to.

    A guy who gets a game winning rbi singe for 162 games will have the same war as a guy who gets an rbi single at the begging of a game and his teams loses 162 games as he failed to get a game winning hit. It’s a flawed stats that goofy fans love.

  8. I mean dude did gold people to only batting .353/.422/.604/1.027 in 97 innings at Coors with a 7.42 era

  9. I don’t believe in the humidor. Play the ballpark as it lies! Coors already has some of the deepest fences in MLB.

    You don’t see them making the Yankees put baseballs in a humidor despite the fact that I think I could piss over the right field fence from home plate.

  10. For the same reason Dante Bichette had an MVP-level season in 1995, but had a 1.2 WAR. Coors fucked with everything.

  12. It was the peak of the steroid era. The offensive numbers were bonkers. Lots of starting pitchers finished high in CY voting while having stats that look like back of the rotation by today’s standards.

  15. It’s not just ERA, but modern stats. ERA+ was below 100, WHIP over 1.6, etc etc. And, contra other posters, can’t just blame the Rox D, either; more than 4 walks per 9 for Bohanon, too.

    But, he also ties for his best year on Runs Above Replacement. And, yes, on Rox D, they were the worst D behind him, that year, of any season in his career.

    But, you can in part blame Coors. [MASSIVE 1999 splits](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=bohanbr01&year=1999&t=p).

  16. MLB average ERA for1999 was 4.70, Asracio home ERA at Coors Field was 7.16; away ERA was 3.60. He also pitched 232 innings that year. Much of that WAR is justified.

Leave a Reply