Which Players Participated In The Highest Percentage of Their Teams' Runs?

Matt Holliday of the Cardinals participated in over 35% of the team's runs in 2014.
(Photo credit: Jeff Roberson/ AP)

In my previous post, I presented the Runs Assisted (RAS) statistic 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.

Some readers have observed that a Run Assisted is similar to 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 230 runs out of 757 total runs for the Tigers in 2014, so he had a 30.4% RPI%.  In Table 1, it is seen that Rays third baseman Evan Longoria led the American League with a 33.0 RPI%.

Table 1: AL Runs Participated In Leaders, 2014 

Player	Team	Team Runs	RPI	RPI%
Evan Longoria	TBA	612	202	33.0
Michael Brantley	CLE	669	213	31.8
Jose Bautista	TOR	723	223	30.8
Miguel Cabrera	DET	757	230	30.4
Mike Trout	ANA	773	234	30.3
Josh Donaldson	OAK	729	218	29.9
Brian Dozier	MIN	715	213	29.8
Ian Kinsler	DET	757	222	29.3
Alexei Ramirez	CHA	660	191	28.9
Howard Kendrick	ANA	773	221	28.6
Alex Gordon	KCA	651	186	28.6
Robinson Cano	SEA	634	179	28.2
Adam Jones	BAL	705	199	28.2
Victor Martinez	DET	757	213	28.1
Adrian Beltre	TEX	637	179	28.1

The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet.

The RPI% statistic might tell us how much a team relied on a player to score runs.  As such, some fans might find it somewhat 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.  Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday (35.4%) Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman (34.9) both participated in over a third of their teams' runs in 2014.  

Table 2: NL Runs Participated In Leaders, 2014

Player	Team	Team Runs	RPI	RPI%
Matt Holliday	SLN	619	219	35.4
Freddie Freeman	ATL	573	200	34.9
Anthony Rendon	WAS	686	223	32.5
Justin Upton	ATL	573	186	32.5
Hunter Pence	SFN	665	210	31.6
Adrian Gonzalez	LAN	718	221	30.8
Chase Utley	PHI	619	190	30.7
Giancarlo Stanton	MIA	645	195	30.2
Todd Frazier	CIN	595	179	30.1
Matt Carpenter	SLN	619	186	30.0
Buster Posey	SFN	665	196	29.5
Jayson Werth	WAS	686	199	29.0
Anthony Rizzo	CHN	614	176	28.7
Ryan Howard	PHI	619	176	28.4
Daniel Murphy	NYN	629	173	27.5

The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet.