Another way to look at RBIs

Dr. Giganto

As anybody with a bit of common sense can understand, RBIs are a very flawed statistic when trying to analyze just how good a baseball player is. Why? Because it's a stat that's extremely dependent on the team around you. After all, the more baserunners you have on base for your at-bats, the more RBIs you are likely to accumulate. Put another way, if you took a certain player and put him 4th in the Tigers' line-up, he would have considerably more RBIs than he would if he were batting 9th for the Royals.

So, baseball prospectus keeps track of what percentage of base-runners a player drives in. This way, a guy like A-Rod, who always has guys on base for his at-bats, is put on equal footing with somebody like Nick Swisher, who plays in a poor offense.

They track OBIs, which is "others batted in", which is basically just RBIs minus HRs (since the RBI you get from scoring yourself on a home-run doesnt have anything to do with driving in others), then they consider what percentage of base-runners get driven in, plus they do it what base the base-runners are on. Here is the data:

AL Top 10, OBI%:

1. Vladimir Guerrero - 21.695%
2.Victor Martinez - 21.429%
3. Magglio Ordonez - 20.755%
4. Raul Ibanez - 20.482%
5. Alex Rodriguez - 20.249%
6. Emil Brown - 19.588% (Whoa! Didnt expect to see his name here...)
7. Carlos Guillen - 19.504%
8. Torii Hunter - 19.476%
9. Joe Mauer - 19.289%
10. Carl crawford - 19.106%

NL Top 10, OBI%:

1. Russell Martin - 21.687%
2. Chase Utley - 21.549%
3. Dmitri Young - 20.188%
4. Aramis Ramirez - 19.355%
5. Carlos Lee - 19.304%
6. Matt Holliday - 19.269%
7. Jeff Francoeur - 19.164%
8. Miguel Cabrera - 19.048%
9. Ryan Howard - 19.014%
10. Brad Hawpe - 18.876%

Blitzkrieg

Some surprises yes, but I'd say most of those guys are still considered big stars. Good read.

Suntan Superman

WC's Resident Samoan

Just as side note, Brad Hawpe is quietly having a good productive year in Colorado...

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Jayman

Super Moderator

I would be interested to see this list vs. top 10 RBI's.

I could look it up, I suppose, but I'm just too lazy.

Do you have a problem with my sig?

Dr. Giganto

Well, here you go Jayman:

AL Top 10 RBIS:

1. Alex Rodriguez - 100 (wow!)
2. Justin Morneau - 85
3. Magglio Ordonez - 82
4. Vladimir Guerrero - 79
5. Victor Martinez - 77
6. Torii Hunter - 73
7. Mike Lowell - 70
8. (tied) Carlos Guillen - 69
8. (tied) Sammy Sosa - 69
10. Gary Sheffield - 66

NL Top 10 RBIs:

1. (tied) Ryan Howard - 81
1. (tied) Chase Utley - 81
3. Carlos Lee - 80
4. Matt Holliday - 77
5. Prince Fielder - 72
6. Miguel Cabrera - 71
7. Brad Hawpe - 66
8. (tied) Adam Dunn - 65
8. (tied) Jeff Francouer - 65
8. (tied) Ken Griffey Jr. - 65
8. (tied) Andruw Jones - 65
8. (tied) Russell Martin - 65

Necro

Arod has 100 batted in already? Holy shit