Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 12, 2006
RBI Gap

Phil Jefferis writes:

I heard something over the weekend that caught my attention. The Astros leading RBI man is obviously Lance Berkman, but who would you guess is second? The answer is tricky. Preston Wilson, who departed about a month ago after riding the bench for awhile, had 55 RBIs during his stay, which would currently put him in second place. The active Astro with the second most RBIs is Adam Everett with 54. Its a telling stat. A guy whose derives about 95% of his value from his defense is our second RBI guy. No wonder we're currently in our third 20+ inning scoreless streak for the year.

That was only part of what surprised me though. The part that I am interested in is the disparity between Lance and Everett. Lance, at 120 RBIs, has more than doubled his closest teammate. I'd have to think that 66 RBIs is about as big a disparity as you'll see in the Majors. Have you looked into this at all?

I took a quick look at the teams I thought might have a similar situation. Philly was my first choice, and from what I can tell, they are the closest with Howard leading Utley by 49 (1.55 times more).

Historically, the biggest gaps belong to two Cubs teams. In 2001, Sammy Sosa drove in 160 runs. Second on that team was Ricky Gutierrez with 66. That's a difference of 94, well more than double. Gutierrez was not known for his offense, and that was his career high. In 1959, Ernie drove in 143 runs with Bobby Thomson (yes, that Bobby Thomson) second behind him with 52, a difference of 91, also more than double. Since the start of the 20th Century, there are eleven teams where the leader in RBI more than doubled the second most on the team.

RBI Difference, Leader Doubling Second on Team
SeasonTeamRBI LeaderSecondDifference
2001 CHN 160 66 94
1959 CHN 143 52 91
1935 BSN 130 60 70
1925 NYA 138 68 70
1946 DET 127 59 68
1936 NY1 135 67 68
1999 MON 131 64 67
1972 SDN 111 47 64
1992 LAN 88 39 49
1912 CLE 90 45 45
1981 CHN 75 35 40

Posted by David Pinto at 04:08 PM | Statistics | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Some of the statheads will say that RBI is not that valuable a stat, because it is dependent on batters ahead of you getting on.

I don't follow the Astros much, but it does seem that they have been woefully negligent in supporting their pitchers, particularly Clemens.

I would agree that the top priority for the Astros is to get another big bat.

Posted by: John N. at September 12, 2006 04:54 PM

and remember that adam has batted EIGHTH for most of the year and preston batted 5th. or 4th. or 6th. and lance has OBP over 400 and Mo ensberg who batted in front of preston for most of the year also has an obp over 380.

so i am not real too impressed with mr. preston K. GIDP.

what i would like to know is why mo ensberg's swing suddenly deserted him right around may 5 cuz his eyes sure working fine

Posted by: lisa gray at September 12, 2006 05:00 PM
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