Cabrera, Headley Provided Bulk of Teams' Offenses

As the AL MVP debate raged on this fall, some fans were actually discussing the NL MVP (yes, they gave one of those this year).  While much of the debate centered on eventual winner Buster Posey and runner-up Ryan Braun, there was also plenty of support for Padres third baseman Chase Headley among others.  Headley compiled some impressive statistics during the year - a .376 OBP, 31 home runs, 263 times on base (good for third in the NL) and 301 total bases (fifth) - while playing half his games in the pitchers paradise of Petco Park.  He was also one of the best third baseman in the majors defensively
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Beyond his great individual performance, some of Headley's backers, claimed that Headley deserved the MVP because the Padres would have had virtually no offense without him. They got a good half season from Carlos Quentin, but no other Padre provided much more than average offensive production for the season.  Their argument was that he was so much better than the rest of the team that it made him more valuable than any other National League player.

Some would argue that a great hitter surrounded by other very good batters provides even more to his team than one solo star because because his interaction with other good hitters creates more runs than one player can provide by himself.  Regardless of who is right, it leads us to an interesting question: Which player accounted the greatest portion of his team's offense?

One simple way to answer the question is with Runs Participated In (RPI) and team runs scored.  As a reminder, RPI = runs scored + RBI + Runs Assisted - Home runs.  On a team that scored just 651 runs in 2012, Headley had 228 RPI for a Runs Participated Percentage (RPI%) of 35.0. In other words, he played a role in over a third of the Padres runs.  Table 1 below shows that he led the league in that category followed by Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen with 34.1.

Table 1: NL Runs Participated In Percentage Leaders, 2012

Player	Team	RPI	Team Runs	RPI%
Chase Headley	SDN	228	651	35.0
Andrew McCutchen	PIT	222	651	34.1
David Wright	NYN	209	650	32.2
Starlin Castro	CHN	189	613	30.8
Matt Holliday	SLN	232	765	30.3
Andre Ethier	LAN	193	637	30.3
Freddie Freeman	ATL	212	700	30.3
Martin Prado	ATL	206	700	29.4
Jay Bruce	CIN	196	669	29.3
Ryan Zimmerman	WAS	212	731	29.0
Buster Posey	SFN	208	718	29.0
Jason Heyward	ATL	201	700	28.7
Jose Reyes	MIA	174	609	28.6
Ryan Braun	MIL	221	776	28.5
Alfonso Soriano	CHN	174	613	28.4

 


Table 2 shows that the American League leader on RPI% was MVP third baseman Miguel Cabrera with 34.8%.  The next three hitters on the list - Joe Mauer of the Twins (32.0), Billy Butler of the Royals (29.9), Jason Kipnis of the Indians (29.5) and Josh Willingham also of then Twins (29.4) - all played on teams with relatively weak offenses.

Table 2: AL Runs Participated In Percentage Leaders, 2012 

Player	Team	RPI	Team Runs	RPI%
Miguel Cabrera	DET	253	726	34.8
Joe Mauer	MIN	224	701	32.0
Billy Butler	KCA	202	676	29.9
Jason Kipnis	CLE	197	667	29.5
Josh Willingham	MIN	206	701	29.4
Mike Trout	ANA	222	767	28.9
Robinson Cano	NYA	228	804	28.4
Alex Gordon	KCA	191	676	28.3
Prince Fielder	DET	205	726	28.2
Edwin Encarnacion	TOR	201	716	28.1
Adam Jones	BAL	198	712	27.8
Shin-Soo Choo	CLE	185	667	27.7
Kyle Seager	SEA	171	619	27.6
Josh Hamilton	TEX	223	808	27.6
Albert Pujols	ANA	207	767	27.0

Finally, Table 3 lists the RPI% for Tigers players.  Not surprisingly, the next highest percentages after Cabrera belonged to Prince Fielder (28.2) and Austin Jackson (26.4).

Table 3: Tigers Runs Participated In Percentage Leaders, 2012 

Player	RPI	RPI%
Miguel Cabrera	253	34.8
Prince Fielder	205	28.2
Austin Jackson	192	26.4
Delmon Young	146	20.1
Jhonny Peralta	135	18.6
Brennan Boesch	134	18.5
Andy Dirks	111	15.3
Alex Avila	103	14.2
Quintin Berry	95	13.1
Omar Infante	62	8.5
Ramon Santiago	58	8.0
Gerald Laird	43	5.9
Ryan Raburn	42	5.8
Danny Worth	23	3.2
Don Kelly	21	2.9

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