RBI has long been one of the most popular baseball statistics among fans and media. I rarely talk about RBI on Tiger Tales because I consider it to be a team statistic more than an individual statistic. This is because the number of RBI a player accumulates is highly dependent on where he bats in the line-up and the ability of his teammates to get on base in front of him. I’ve always thought it would be nice if there was a readily available RBI stat which took into account the number of opportunities players had to drive in runs. Thanks to David Pinto’s very useful day to day database at Baseball Musings, one is now available.
RBI Percentage is the rate at which a batter drives in runs relative to the number of runners on base when he comes to the plate. It is computed as follows: ((RBI-HR)/runners on)*100. For example, Magglio Ordonez has come to the plate with 268 runners on base this season. He has driven in 68-16= 52 of them for an RBI % of 19.4. It’s not a perfect stat. One problem is that it gives a player the same credit for knocking in a runner from third as for knocking in a runner from first. There are ways that you could weight the opportunities so that a player gets more credit from driving in runs in more difficult RBI situations but I’ll work with Pinto’s basic RBI % stat for now.
The table below shows how the Tiger hitters rank among 304 Major Leaguers with 100 or more runners on. Ordonez (25th in the majors) is the highest ranking Tiger. Other high ranking Tigers are Carlos Guillen (18.99, 29th ) and Brandon Inge (18.35, 44th). The lowest RBI % on the team belongs to Chris Shelton (12.44%, 251st).
Table: How the Tigers Rank in RBI % Among Major Leaguers
| Rank | Player | Runners | RBI | HR | RBI % |
| 25 | Ordonez | 268 | 68 | 16 | 19.40 |
| 29 | Guillen | 258 | 61 | 12 | 18.99 |
| 44 | Inge | 218 | 60 | 20 | 18.35 |
| 77 | Granderson | 209 | 47 | 11 | 17.22 |
| 107 | Polanco | 208 | 37 | 3 | 16.35 |
| 111 | Rodriguez | 234 | 46 | 8 | 16.24 |
| 122 | | 231 | 51 | 14 | 16.02 |
| 162 | | 162 | 43 | 19 | 14.81 |
| 251 | | 225 | 44 | 16 | 12.44 |
The Table below lists the top 20 Major Leaguers in RBI percentage. It is not too surprising that Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran and Albert Pujols rank near the top. It is surprising however that Frank Catalanotto is second in the majors and first in the American League in RBI percentage.
Table: Major League Leaders in RBI Percentage – July 25, 2006
| Player | Runners | RBI | HR | RBI % |
| Lance Berkman | 264 | 88 | 26 | 23.48 |
| Frank Catalanotto | 179 | 47 | 7 | 22.35 |
| Carlos Beltran | 244 | 82 | 28 | 22.13 |
| Albert Pujols | 252 | 86 | 33 | 21.03 |
| Olmedo Saenz | 134 | 36 | 8 | 20.90 |
| Vladimir Guerrero | 278 | 78 | 20 | 20.86 |
| Freddy Sanchez | 245 | 56 | 5 | 20.82 |
| Bobby Abreu | 274 | 65 | 8 | 20.80 |
| Raul Ibanez | 282 | 78 | 21 | 20.21 |
| Juan Rivera | 154 | 46 | 15 | 20.13 |
| Russell Martin | 174 | 39 | 4 | 20.11 |
| Justin Morneau | 274 | 81 | 26 | 20.07 |
| Jose Valentin | 150 | 41 | 11 | 20.00 |
| Michael Young | 285 | 65 | 8 | 20.00 |
| Gabe Gross | 105 | 29 | 8 | 20.00 |
| Daniel Uggla | 201 | 54 | 14 | 19.90 |
| Jorge Cantu | 157 | 39 | 8 | 19.75 |
| Johnny Estrada | 218 | 51 | 8 | 19.72 |
| Jeff DaVanon | 137 | 32 | 5 | 19.71 |
| Gary Matthews | 198 | 49 | 10 | 19.70 |
Alex Rodriguez is down there with Craig Monroe this year - 16%. But if you go back to past years, he looks much better. I went back to the beginning of 2000 and looked at all players with 1,000 or more runners on in the past 7 years. There were about 300 players and Rodriguez ranked 27th.
ReplyDeleteWhen you do a long period like that, all the sluggers rise to the top. One of the few exceptions is Catalanotto who ranks in the top 25. I've always liked that guy.
How does the stat deal with the single RBI picked up from a solo home run? Definately a nice stat tho.
ReplyDeleteI've also liked the Run% (I think that's the name) stat. Shows how often a runner scores when he reaches base. I'm not sure how useful it really is, but it seems to give some indication of baserunning skill, and even more of how the hitters behind him in the lineup are doing. Inge, or example, has always seemed to score a lot of runs, despite a low OBP.
Nate, the stat only gives a player credit for knocking in runners that were on base when he came to the plate. So, he would not get credit for knocking himself in with a home run. It just measures how successful he is at getting runners home. I think there are a number of different ways you could tweak this stat but it's an interesting concept. I'm going to try to look at some other years in Pinto's database.
ReplyDeleteLee, earlier this month I used it to see how often the run came in from scoring position. I didn't really think it was fair to measure if a guy was on first base. Baseball Prospectus has the figures for RBI% from 1st, 2nd and 3rd so you can work it out like that.
ReplyDeleteMy finding was Polanco, in limited chances, had a nice success rate.
-Kurt / MackAve
Kurt, the simplicity of RBI % is pretty appealing but I agree the BP stats give you a fairer measure. I just wish the BP site was a little more user friendly. I have a heck of time trying to navigate through their stats.
ReplyDelete