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By Tangotiger 04:23 PM

​Answer: current ultimate.

Why? Well, let's say that you think it's a quick and easy tool. What else would you do? You might… well, use RE24 instead of wOBA. That's still part of the WAR framework, simply a different implementation. Maybe you want WPA? Sure, go ahead. Maybe you prefer Dewan to Lichtman? Sure. But all of that is still part of the same framework. That's why WAR is the ultimate tool: it allows you to swap in/out your various components. You can even choose to have a different scale for the fielding spectrum. You can even change the replacement level to something higher or lower. And still, you'd be using WAR.

So, go ahead, and treat Fangraphs and Baseball Reference as something "quick and dirty". But I will promise you that whatever you will do will be even quicker and dirtier.

What WAR does is give you a framework, and makes it very easy for everyone to have their own implementation. Don't like what you see? Well, you are being given a systematic, consistent framework to which you can build your own house. Go ahead and do it, and give us an open house to look at it.

Or, complain that somehow these free WAR homes are not good enough and… well… keep wandering the streets with nowhere to sleep. The reality is that we all have some sort of WAR home. You just maybe don't know all the rooms in your own house, and the rooms keep changing, depending on which players come to visit. WAR at Fangraphs and Baseball Reference are merciless to its player guests.