Post by Fumbduckery on Mar 11, 2018 13:53:10 GMT -5
I brought this up a few times at the MLB bored and got no takers.
Why don't we ever see a percentage of runners that each player drives based on how many chances he has?
We still have a segment of people who think RBI is an important stat. I feel like it's been proven that it's not a good measure of an individual's offensive production. It relies on other players too much.
To me the way to slow down the people who think RBI is an important stat would simply be to make available each player's success rate. I feel like it would show a lot. We all know via the eye test and stored in our brains without even thinking about it that some guys get more chances than others. So if one guy gets say 150 chances in a season to drive in a runner from scoring position, how can we fairly compare him against another guy who only gets 100 chances? And if a percentage were to become available, should it maybe include a formula that somehow weighs whether runners were on second base or third base? And even throw in runners who were on first base into the equation?
I guess in the meantime the closest thing we can use is to look at each guy's OPS with runners in scoring position. One quick comparison I can make is Markakis and Heyward. Heyward has been criticized his entire career for not driving in enough runs. And Markakis has been applauded as being a "good run producer" for us because he gets RBI's.
Check this out--
As bad a season as Heyward had offensively in 2017, he only had 59 RBI for the season, he did have an OPS of .808 with RISP and an OPS of .980 with RISP and two outs.
In 2017 Markakis drove in 76 runs and had an .825 OPS with RISP, and a .707 OPS with RISP and two outs.
Markakis had 23 more AB's with RISP and 13 more AB's with RISP and two outs.
Another comparison, Markakis had 89 RBI in 2016 (wow what a superstar!), but he 25 more AB's that year than 2017 with RISP and 20 more AB's with RISP and two outs. His OPS in 2016 was .763 with RISP and .725 with RISP and two outs. That's eye opening.
As vilified and Heyward has been during his career for not driving in runs, and even with the two terrible offensive years he's just had, he still has a career OPS of .752 with RISP and .826 with RISP and two outs.
I feel certain there's definitely something to this whether you use advanced stats or not. Some guys simply get significantly more chances than others. And I'm pretty amazed that we never really hear any talk about it, to the point of saying hey, yeah some guys get more chances, let's come up with a way of putting it out there for everybody to see exactly how it's playing out in reality.
Why don't we ever see a percentage of runners that each player drives based on how many chances he has?
We still have a segment of people who think RBI is an important stat. I feel like it's been proven that it's not a good measure of an individual's offensive production. It relies on other players too much.
To me the way to slow down the people who think RBI is an important stat would simply be to make available each player's success rate. I feel like it would show a lot. We all know via the eye test and stored in our brains without even thinking about it that some guys get more chances than others. So if one guy gets say 150 chances in a season to drive in a runner from scoring position, how can we fairly compare him against another guy who only gets 100 chances? And if a percentage were to become available, should it maybe include a formula that somehow weighs whether runners were on second base or third base? And even throw in runners who were on first base into the equation?
I guess in the meantime the closest thing we can use is to look at each guy's OPS with runners in scoring position. One quick comparison I can make is Markakis and Heyward. Heyward has been criticized his entire career for not driving in enough runs. And Markakis has been applauded as being a "good run producer" for us because he gets RBI's.
Check this out--
As bad a season as Heyward had offensively in 2017, he only had 59 RBI for the season, he did have an OPS of .808 with RISP and an OPS of .980 with RISP and two outs.
In 2017 Markakis drove in 76 runs and had an .825 OPS with RISP, and a .707 OPS with RISP and two outs.
Markakis had 23 more AB's with RISP and 13 more AB's with RISP and two outs.
Another comparison, Markakis had 89 RBI in 2016 (wow what a superstar!), but he 25 more AB's that year than 2017 with RISP and 20 more AB's with RISP and two outs. His OPS in 2016 was .763 with RISP and .725 with RISP and two outs. That's eye opening.
As vilified and Heyward has been during his career for not driving in runs, and even with the two terrible offensive years he's just had, he still has a career OPS of .752 with RISP and .826 with RISP and two outs.
I feel certain there's definitely something to this whether you use advanced stats or not. Some guys simply get significantly more chances than others. And I'm pretty amazed that we never really hear any talk about it, to the point of saying hey, yeah some guys get more chances, let's come up with a way of putting it out there for everybody to see exactly how it's playing out in reality.
