Which Players Were Best At Advancing Runners In 2014?

White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton excelled at advancing runners last year.
(Photo credit: David Banks, USA Today Sports)

In earlier posts, I discussed some statistics which describe how runs are scored: (1) Baseball Prospectus' Others Batted In Percentage statistic which is the percent of runners on base which a batter drives in; (2) Runs Assisted which is the number of runs to which a batted contributed without getting a run scored or RBI. In this post, I'll talk about other things that can happen in a plate appearance where there are runners on base.   

The events that can occur when batters are presented with baserunners can be put into two broad categories (Advancement and Non-advancement) and five sub-categories.  There are three types of Advances (ADV):

• Other Batted In (OBI) - A baserunner is driven in by the batter.  It's the same thing as an RBI except a player does not get credit for driving himself in with a home run.

• Run Assisted (RAS) - 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.

• Unrewarded Advancement (UNR) - A batter advances a runner, but the runner does not score by the end of the inning.  

When I first presented the Runs Assisted metric, I also included a second part to the definition: "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".   Here, I am only looking at whether a batter advances baserunners, so the second portion is excluded.

There are two types of Non-advances (NADV):

• Neutral (NEU) - A batter does not advance a runner, but there are no outs on the play. (e.g. a walk with a runner on second)

• Giveaway (GA) - A batter fails to advance a runner and one or more outs are made either at the plate or on the bases.

It is possible to have an Advance and a Giveaway in the same plate appearance.  For example, a batter comes up with runners on first and second and hits into a force out at second advancing the runner to third.  In that case, he gets credit for a Giveaway for the first runner and an Advance (either a RAS or UNR) for the second runner.  These statistics are discussed further in the comments section of a post at Tom Tango's Book Blog.  I basically followed his algorithm presented in comment #31. I have not yet programmed the odd-ball occurrences discussed, but they should not change the results too much.   

Table 1 below shows that there were 55,199 runners on base in all American League plate appearances in 2014. A total of 20,888 (or 37.8%) were advanced including Others Batted In (13.5%), Runs Assisted (10.6%) and Unrewarded Advances (13.7%).  There were 34,311 Non-advances (62.2%) including Neutrals (4.3%) and Giveaways (57.9%).   The National League percentages were similar.  

Table 1: Advancement of Runners by League , 2014 

League	American		National
Category	n	%	n	%
Baserunners	55,199	100.0	54,239	100.0
Advances	20,888	37.8	20,309	37.4
Others Batted In	7,476	13.5	7,084	13.1
Runs Assisted	5,851	10.6	5,462	10.1
Unrewarded Advances	7,561	13.7	7,763	14.3
Non-advances	34,311	62.2	33,930	62.5
Neutrals	2,363	4.3	2,511	4.6
Giveaways	31,948	57.9	31,419	57.9

These counting statistics are not a replacement for Batting Runs or True Average or any of your other favorite batting evaluation statistics.  Their primary purpose is to fill gaps in baseball data collection.  I find it interesting to know how successful a batter was in advancing runners and how often he failed.  In a more sophisticated analysis, these statistics might have some practical use in building batting orders or in looking at the age-old clutch questions.  This post only serves as an introduction to some new statistical categories. 

Table 2 shows that Marlins third baseman Casey McGehee advanced more runners (201) than any player in baseball in 2014.  The American League leader was Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick with 191.  Does it seem odd that McGehee was the best in the league at advancing runners last year?  If this doesn't feel right to you, there's a reason for it. Table 3 tells us that McGehee was also among the leaders in failing to advance 280 baserunners.  

                                     Table 2: Runners Advanced Leaders, 2014

Player	Team	OBI	RAS	Unrewarded	Advances
Casey McGehee	Florida	72	45	84	201
Adrian Gonzalez	Los Angeles	89	50	56	195
Matt Holliday	St. Louis	70	63	59	192
Howard Kendrick	Los Angeles	68	65	58	191
Josh Donaldson	Oakland	69	55	61	185
Jose Bautista	Toronto	68	52	65	185
Albert Pujols	Los Angeles	77	41	62	180
Chase Utley	Philadelphia	67	49	64	180
Erick Aybar	Los Angeles	61	65	53	179
Victor Martinez	Detroit	71	50	58	179

                                         Table 3: Non-Advancement Leaders, 2014

Player	Team	Neutrals	Giveaways	Non-advances
Ian Desmond	Washington	19	287	306
Justin Upton	Atlanta	21	284	305
Ryan Howard	Philadelphia	33	261	294
Marlon Byrd	Philadelphia	22	265	287
Evan Longoria	Tampa Bay	31	254	285
Casey McGehee	Florida	22	258	280
Albert Pujols	Los Angeles	26	247	273
Carlos Santana	Cleveland	41	232	273
Nelson Cruz	Baltimore	17	253	270
Adrian Gonzalez	Los Angeles	25	241	266

McGehee being among the leaders in both advances and non-advances tells us something about these new measures. They are counting statistics like RBI which are dependent on opportunity and McGehee had more baserunners in his plate appearances (481) than any player in MLB.  So, it's useful to compute a rate.  There are several ways that could be done, but one simple one is Advance Percentage (ADV%).  

Table 4 indicates that White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton advanced 119 of 242 baserunners (excluding neutral plate appearances) for a .492 Advance Percentage.  This was the top percentage among players with 200 or more baserunners in their plate appearances.  The trailers are shown in Table 5 led by Washington infielder Danny Espinosa at .258.  

Table 4: Advance Percentage Leaders, 2014

Player	Team	Baserunners	Advances	%
Adam Eaton	Chicago	242	119	.492
Melky Cabrera	Toronto	337	162	.481
Miguel Cabrera	Detroit	373	177	.475
David Murphy	Cleveland	283	133	.470
Justin Morneau	Colorado	339	156	.460
Russell Martin	Pittsburgh	309	142	.460
Norichika Aoki	Kansas City	283	130	.459
Seth Smith	San Diego	274	125	.456
Brett Gardner	New York	304	138	.454
Kurt Suzuki	Minnesota	313	142	.454
Hunter Pence	San Francisco	356	161	.452
Michael Brantley	Cleveland	388	175	.451
Victor Martinez	Detroit	397	179	.451
Matt Holliday	St. Louis	426	192	.451
Mike Trout	Los Angeles	395	177	.448
Paul Goldschmidt	Arizona	279	125	.448
Jayson Werth	Washington	391	175	.448
Daniel Nava	Boston	244	109	.447
Robbie Grossman	Houston	209	93	.445
Howard Kendrick	Los Angeles	430	191	.444

Table 5: Advance Percentage Trailers, 2013 

Player	Team	Baserunners	Advances	%
Danny Espinosa	Washington	221	57	.258
Asdrubal Cabrera	Cleveland	252	70	.278
Gaby Sanchez	Pittsburgh	210	60	.286
Xander Bogaerts	Boston	345	99	.287
Jonathan Schoop	Baltimore	289	84	.291
Mark Reynolds	Milwaukee	264	77	.292
Logan Forsythe	Tampa Bay	231	69	.299
Wil Myers	Tampa Bay	241	72	.299
Mike Zunino	Seattle	276	83	.301
Matt Dominguez	Houston	378	114	.302

The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet.  Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at Retrosheet.org.