Having some time to kill this afternoon, I decided to look at run production by individual players. I think I stole this idea from somewhere, but I don’t recall where.
What I did was take the Top 20 RBI men in the ML. I added their runs scored and RBI and then subtracted their HR so they didn’t get credit for two runs. I then divided the total by their plate appearances and came up with, for lack of a better term, their run production average, or RPA.
Obviously, factors outside the individual player's control are part of this study, and I haven’t thought much about how to resolve that yet. For instance, a player can only drive in runs if guys get on base ahead of him, and can only score – outside of a HR – if someone behind him drives him in. So the strength of a team’s lineup can help or hurt a player in these rankings.
Anyway, below are the Top 20 RBI men ranked according to RPA. The first number is runs produced followed by plate appearance and then their average (with their RBI rank in parentheses). Following the Top 20 are four players I did just out of curiosity.
Does this have any value?
Pujols 92-233 .395 (1)
Beltran 84-254 .331 (T11)
Hafner 93-289 .322 (T6)
Thome 87-277 .314 (T4)
Giambi 77-251 .307 (T11)
Glaus 83-280 .296 (T13)
Tejada 89-305 .292 (T13)
A Jones 80-284 .282 (T2)
Berkman 74-263 .281 (T4)
Morneau 69-250 .276 (T13)
Konerko 78-287 .272 (T17)
C. Lee 79-290 .272 (T6)
Ortiz 79-291 .271 (T2)
Lopez 82-304 .270 (T17)
Wells 76-283 .269 (T9)
Wright 79-296 .267 (T19)
Guerrero 73-277 .264 (T9)
Bay 79-300 .263 (T13)
Howard 70-275 .255 (T6)
Burrell 65-255 .255 (T19)
The other four:
Abreu 90-292 .308 (T27)
A Rod 85-283 .300 (T30)
Holliday 80-276 .290 (T27)
Blaylock 80-290 .276 (T27)
2 comments:
I think the RPA does have merit, however, a more comprehensive study is required to confirm. Given the time and resources to do so, I would commission a study which produces the RPA for all every day players and then compare them by position in the batting order (i.e. leadoff hitters, etc...).
Of course, big name players are well known and easily identifiable w/o the RPA. I think the RPA might be able to prove its' value in highlighting 2nd tier players a GM would try to pick up that can round out the bottome of the order.
OK. Sounds good. Get to work.
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