The Jaffe Wins Above Replacement Score, commonly abbreviated JAWS, is a

sabermetric Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...

baseball statistic Baseball statistics play an important role in evaluating the progress of a player or team. Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itsel ...

developed to evaluate the strength of a player's career and merit for induction into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

. Created by averaging a player's career

WAR War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

with their 7-year peak WAR, its "stated goal is to improve the Hall of Fame's standards, or at least to maintain them rather than erode them, by admitting players who are at least as good as the average Hall of Famer at the position, using a means via which longevity isn't the sole determinant of worthiness." JAWS was devised in 2004 by Jay Jaffe of

Baseball Prospectus Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team perf ...

and the acronym "JAWS" was introduced by Jaffe the following year. Early in its history, the influence of JAWS was somewhat limited by the

paywall A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of ...

of Baseball Prospectus. In November 2012,

Baseball-Reference.com Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

added JAWS values to every player page after Jaffe left Baseball-Reference competitor Baseball Prospectus for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

''. In 2014,

Will Leitch William F. Leitch (born October 10, 1975 in Mattoon, Illinois) is an American writer and the founding editor of the Gawker Media former sports blog '' Deadspin''. Leitch is a national correspondent for MLB.com, a contributing editor at ''New Yor ...

called JAWS "the definitive statistical measure" in evaluating Hall of Fame cases. In 2016, Craig Edwards of Fangraphs described JAWS as "the standard-bearer for Hall of Fame analysis over the last decade." Critics of the stat point out that it does not account for postseason performance or awards in measuring players' Hall of Fame worthiness. Further, the metric has been accused of undervaluing individual outstanding seasons. , the player with the highest JAWS score all-time was

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

and the player with the worst JAWS score in the Baseball Hall of Fame was Tommy McCarthy. ,

Bobby Grich Robert Anthony Grich (born January 15, 1949) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles (–) and the California Angels (–). In 1981, Grich led the ...

had the best JAWS score of any eligible

position player In baseball, a position player is a player who on defense plays as an infielder, outfielder, or catcher. In Major League Baseball (since 1973 in the American League and since 2022 in the National League), there is also a designated hitter, who ...

not in the Hall of Fame.

References

Baseball statistics {{baseball-stub