Ranking Agencies By 2012 WAR

Which agency's players have the most MLB talent?  One way of answering that question is to rank the agencies by 2012 wins above replacement (from FanGraphs).  Here are the results for total 2012 WAR (please note that players with negative WAR were omitted):

1. Boras Corporation: 104.4
2. CAA Sports: 102.1.
3. ACES: 78.8.
4. SFX: 72.6.
5. Wasserman Media Group: 66.5.
6. Excel Sports Management: 62.4.
7. The Legacy Agency: 56.0.
8. Octagon: 52.1.
9. MVP Sports Group: 34.3.
10. LSW Baseball: 25.9.
11. Beverly Hills Sports Council: 26.1.
12. Frontline: 20.6.
13. Reynolds Sports Management: 18.4.
14. Sosnick/Cobbe: 18.1.
15. Hendricks Sports: 17.4.

Some interesting information arises when we rank agencies by WAR per big league player, filtering to those with at least ten players.  WAR per player:

1. Excel Sports Management: 2.40.
2. Boras Corporation: 2.09.
3. Frontline: 2.06.
4. CAA Sports: 2.04.
5. LSW Baseball: 1.99.
6. MVP Sports Group: 1.81.
7. Octagon: 1.80.
8. The Legacy Agency: 1.75.
9. Moye Sports Associates: 1.68.
10. Reynolds Sports Management: 1.67.
11. Sosnick/Cobbe: 1.65.
12. Hendricks Sports: 1.58.
13. SFX: 1.51.
14. ACES: 1.49.
15. Wasserman Media Group: 1.41.

Beverly Hills Sports Council ranks outside the top 15, with 1.04.  They had only two players who exceeded 2.0 WAR, Jason Kipnis and Ryan Ludwick.  But perhaps in some cases WAR per player is deceiving, because a large agency like Boras gets dinged for having small contributions from players like Jacob Turner or Zach Britton.  So, here's a listing of the number of four-win players by agency:

1. Boras Corporation: 8 (Adrian Beltre, Michael Bourn, Austin Jackson, Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg).
2. CAA Sports: 7 (Robinson Cano, Ryan Braun, Buster Posey, Jake Peavy, Adam Jones, Ryan Zimmerman, David Freese).  You'll note that CAA is credited for having Cano now, even though Boras had him in 2012.
3. ACES, Excel Sports Management, The Legacy Agency: tied at 5.

Octagon and Wasserman Media Group had three each.

What have we learned?  Boras still reigns supreme, in terms of depth of MLB talent and star power.  CAA is very close on both fronts with the addition of Cano, though the second baseman's association with Roc Nation Sports muddies the waters a bit.  ACES remains strong — in terms of three-win players, they rank behind only Boras and CAA, with nine.

MLBTR's agency database was used for this post; please email me at mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com with any corrections or omissions.