My WAR calculation is a combination of Baseball-reference and Clay Davenport; I believe it to be the "best" WAR number available for historical comparison. 8 WAR is an MVP quality season. The record is pythagorean adjusted for 162 games.
1901 58-104
C Jack Warner -.15
1B John Ganzel -3.65
2B Ray Nelson -1.3
SS George Davis 4
3B Sammy Strang 2.45
LF Kip Selbach .8
CF Algie McBride 0
RF George Van Haltren 4.15
Uti Charlie Hickman .8
C Frank Bowerman -1.05
2B Frank Murphy -2.15
P Dummy Taylor 3.1
P Christy Mathewson MVPQ 8.6
P Bill Phyle -.55
-20 year old Christy Mathewson threw a no hitter and gave the Giants their best season from a player since '94; but this was the worst Giants team ever and runs player/manager Davis, the greatest Giants position player to that date, temporarily out of the organization. There's a line here we'll see how far we can take through Giants history: Hall of Famer Connor was on the first Giants team in '83; he played with Hall of Famer Davis; he plays with Hall of Famer Mathewson.
