So...the reason for the eye-test argument, last episode. Let’s make a long story short, and keep things reasonably simple...let’s consider the case of Javier Baez. Is he at a new level, or was 2018 an overachiever moment?
Progress isn’t linear, right? Javy’s bbref page tells us that he earned more than half of his lifetime WAR in 2018 (6.3; 11.9), and further that he has ascended a pretty smooth curve, with such individual stats as HR (14, 23, 34) and such suspect data as RBI (59, 75, 111) making steady progress the last three years. In 2018 he had another 150 or so at-bats, but his SLG and OPS both followed the same gradient.