Which Players Participated in the Greatest Proportion of Their Teams' Runs in 2013?

 

AL MVP Miguel Cabrera participated in almost a third of the Tigers runs in 2013.
(Photo credit: Ed Zurga/ Getty Images)

In my previous post, I presented a new statistic (Runs Assisted or RAS) and updated an old one (Runs Participated In or RPI).  A player gets credit for a Run Assisted in the following instances:

• A batter advances a runner to either second or third with a hit, base on balls, hit batsmen, error, sacrifice bunt, or another kind of out.  If that runner then scores either during the same at bat or an ensuing at bat, the batter who advanced him is given a Run Assisted.

• A batter reaches base and is removed for a pinch runner or is replaced by another runner on a force out.  If the new runner then scores, the batter who originally reached base is given a Run Assisted.

One tweeter (FoulBallzMLB) observed that a Run Assisted is like an assist in hockey because a player doesn't actually score the run/goal, but helps to make it happen.  You could also say that the RBI is like the first assist in hockey and the Run Assisted is like the second assist.  Either way, I think the hockey analogy is apt.

A player gets credit for a Run Participated In if he either scores a run, drives in a run or Assists a run, but he can't get double credit for any one run.  The formula is RPI = R + RBI + RAS - HR.  The limitations of these measures were discussed in detail in the above linked post.

Runs Participated In is a counting statistic which is influenced by opportunity, so it's good to also have a rate measure.  One possibility is Runs Participated In Percentage (RPI%) which is the percentage of a teams' runs in which a player participated.  For example, Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera participated in 250 runs out of 796 total runs for the Tigers in 2013, so he had a 31.4% RPI%.  In Table 1, it is seen that Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano led the American League with a 32.0 RPI%.

Table 1: AL Runs Participated In Leaders, 2013

Player	Team	Team Runs	RPI	RPI%
Robinson Cano	NYA	650	208	32.0
Eric Hosmer	KCA	648	206	31.8
Mike Trout	ANA	733	231	31.5
Miguel Cabrera	DET	796	250	31.4
Adam Jones	BAL	745	226	30.3
Elvis Andrus	TEX	730	218	29.9
Chris Davis	BAL	745	222	29.8
Evan Longoria	TBA	700	207	29.6
Alex Gordon	KCA	648	189	29.2
Billy Butler	KCA	648	183	28.2
Ben Zobrist	TBA	700	194	27.7
Dustin Pedroia	BOS	853	236	27.7
Josh Donaldson	OAK	767	211	27.5
Edwin Encarnacion	TOR	712	195	27.4
Torii Hunter	DET	796	217	27.3

The RPI% statistic might tell us how much a team relied on a player to score runs.  As such, some fans might find it useful in MVP voting.  The limitation, of course, is that a player may benefit from having less productive teammates surrounding him in the order.

The National League RPI% leaders are shown in Table 2.  First basemen Paul Goldschmidt (35.3%) of the DiamondBacks Joey Votto (33.2) of the Reds bot participated in over a third of their teams runs in 2013. 

Table 2: NL Runs Participated In Leaders, 2013

Player	Team	Team Runs	RPI	RPI%
Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	685	242	35.3
Joey Votto	CIN	698	232	33.2
Brandon Phillips	CIN	698	229	32.8
Hunter Pence	SFN	629	204	32.4
Andrew McCutchen	PIT	634	202	31.9
Matt Holliday	SLN	783	249	31.8
Freddie Freeman	ATL	688	218	31.7
Adrian Gonzalez	LAN	649	200	30.8
Daniel Murphy	NYN	619	189	30.5
Jay Bruce	CIN	698	210	30.1
Matt Carpenter	SLN	783	232	29.6
Anthony Rizzo	CHN	602	172	28.6
Ian Desmond	WAS	656	184	28.0
Jayson Werth	WAS	656	183	27.9
Ryan Zimmerman	WAS	656	181	27.6

 
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