Defensive runs created in 2008

In my previous post, I showed that the Tigers scored about as many runs as they theoretically created given their number of singles, doubles, triples, homers, walks, etc in 2007. I wanted to see if the same was true about runs allowed by the defense (pitching and fielding combined). I applied the same runs created formula as I did for batting stats to pitching stats. The team results are listed in Tables 1 and 2 below for the American and National Leagues respectively.

You will notice that the number of runs allowed by each American League team was within 5 percent of their defensive runs created. So, the agreement between runs allowed and defense runs created was even stronger than it was for offense. In the National League, there were three teams that fell outside the 5% range.

Table 1 shows that the Tigers defense allowed 857 runs which is just six more than the 851 runs they theoretically created in 2008. So, their pitching was neither lucky nor unlucky. It was just bad. Both their pitching and hitting were sabermetrically correct.

The team that was best (luckiest?) at preventing hits and walks from becoming runs was you guessed it - the Twins. They allowed 27 fewer runs than their pitchers and fielders theoretically created. The most unlucky American League team was the Rangers who allowed 4.4% more than they created.

There were three National League teams who allowed at least 5% fewer runs than they should have - the Phillies (8.0%), Cardinals (7%) and Reds (5.1%). The unluckiest team was the Diamondbacks who allowed 3.5% more than they created.

Table 1: Runs Allowed Versus Defense Runs Created in American League in 2008

Team	Runs allowed	Runs Created	difference	% difference
MIN	745	772	-27	-3.5
LAA	697	721	-24	-3.4
TOR	610	630	-20	-3.2
SEA	811	837	-26	-3.1
BAL	869	882	-13	-1.5
TB	671	679	-8	-1.2
CHA	729	734	-5	-0.7
CLE	761	765	-4	-0.5
NYA	727	723	4	0.5
BOS	694	690	4	0.5
DET	857	851	6	0.7
OAK	690	684	6	0.9
KC	781	753	28	3.8
TEX	967	926	41	4.4

Table 1: Runs Allowed Versus Defense Runs Created in National League in 2008

Team	Runs allowed	Runs Created	difference	% difference
PHI	680	739	-59	-8.0
STL	725	780	-55	-7.0
CIN	800	843	-43	-5.1
HOU	743	766	-23	-3.0
PIT	884	911	-27	-3.0
MIL	689	709	-20	-2.8
NYN	715	729	-14	-2.0
CHN	671	679	-8	-1.2
SF	759	756	3	0.3
LAN	648	645	3	0.4
SD	764	758	6	0.7
COL	822	816	6	0.8
WAS	825	814	11	1.3
ATL	778	761	17	2.3
FLA	767	745	22	3.0
ARI	706	682	24	3.5