Ranking of Royal Shortstops According to individual season WAR

Chone Smith has recently released Wins Above Replacement Level (WAR) for all positional player 1955 to 2008. I went and look at the recent KC black hole, the shortstop position. Ever since the pair or Freddy Patek and U.L. Washington (with both of them splitting duties in 1979 for the transition), the Royals have not be able to fill the position until hopefully Mike Aviles steps up.

Here is the list of top and bottom ten seasons for Royal Shortstops according to there WAR. I included Win Shares for comparison.

WAR Rank	Year	Name	WAR	Win Shares	Win Shares Rank
1	1997	Jay Bell	5.5	21	2
2	2008	Mike Aviles	3.9	17	5
3	1971	Freddie Patek	3.8	24	1
4	2003	Angel Berroa	3.8	16	6
5	1999	Rey Sanchez	3.6	12	17
6	1993	Greg Gagne	3.2	18	4
7	1976	Freddie Patek	3.1	14	13
8	2001	Rey Sanchez	3.1	10	26
9	1982	U L Washington	2.9	18	3
10	1973	Freddie Patek	2.6	16	7
44	1986	Buddy Biancalana	-0.5	4	40
45	1987	Angel Salazar	-0.5	5	33
46	1982	Onix Concepcion	-0.9	2	49
47	1970	Jackie Hernandez	-1.0	3	44
48	1985	Onix Concepcion	-1.0	5	34
49	1979	Freddie Patek	-1.1	3	45
50	1969	Jackie Hernandez	-1.2	7	31
51	2002	Neifi Perez	-1.7	6	32
52	2006	Angel Berroa	-1.9	1	52
53	2008	Tony Pena	-2.0	0	53

A few observations:

1. Gotta love the bottom three, just gotta.
2. Berroa has the largest gap (5.7 WAR) between best and worst season, with Patek coming in 2nd (4.9 WAR)
3. Why didn't we keep Jay bell longer
4. The Dye for Perez trade looks even worse considering what Sanchez was giving us.

Here is the list of all the Shortstop(s) over the seasons with the their stats combined:

Year	Name(s)	War	WinShares
2008	Pena Aviles	1.9	17
2007	Tony Pena	0.8	10
2006	Angel Berroa	-1.9	1
2005	Angel Berroa	0.5	11
2004	Angel Berroa	0.5	10
2003	Angel Berroa	3.8	16
2002	Neifi Perez	-1.7	6
2001	Sanchez/Perez	3.1	13
2000	Rey Sanchez	2.3	9
1999	Rey Sanchez	3.6	12
1998	Lopez/Halter	0.3	8
1997	Jay Bell	5.5	21
1996	David Howard	0.4	9
1995	Greg Gagne	1.9	10
1994	Greg Gagne	1.5	11
1993	Greg Gagne	3.2	18
1992	Rossy/Wilkerson	0.9	12
1991	Stillwell/Howard	0.5	13
1990	Kurt Stillwell	1.1	12
1989	Kurt Stillwell	1.9	15
1988	Kurt Stillwell	2.6	16
1987	Angel Salazar	-0.5	5
1986	Salazar/Biancalana	0.3	8
1985	Biancalana/Concepcion	-1.1	8
1984	Washingtion/Concepcion	1.7	10
1983	U L Washington	0.6	13
1982	Washingtion/Concepcion	2	20
1981	U L Washington	1	8
1980	U L Washington	2.1	16
1979	Washingtion/Patek	-0.4	8
1978	Freddie Patek	1.5	11
1977	Freddie Patek	2.3	15
1976	Freddie Patek	3.1	14
1975	Freddie Patek	0.8	11
1974	Freddie Patek	2.1	15
1973	Freddie Patek	2.6	16
1972	Freddie Patek	2.4	13
1971	Freddie Patek	3.8	24
1970	Matchick/Hernandez/Severson	0.1	10
1969	Jackie Hernandez	-1.2	7