There will definitely be no A-Rod World Series opt out announcement and it is unlikely that a near $100M deal will be hashed out at a fast food restaurant, but the free agent class for 2009 contains a whole host of current All-Stars, former All-Stars, salvage cases and at least one future Hall of Famer.
The Red Sox didn't have the best regular season record in 2008, but using our metrics for overall quality, they were the best team in baseball, followed by the Cubs. How did the other 28 teams do?
The story of Albert Belle can be summed up in one word: controversy. His talent on the field was matched by very few, and his propensity to deal with the media the way he did, made national headlines.
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By Christopher Reina
I like to keep track of a simple to understand statistic that is supremely indicative of how much weight a player carries within the framework of his offense.
There are two hands involved with every run scored: one from the runner scoring, and one from the batter who drives in the run. When a player hits a home run, he has two hands on the run.
In order to calculate the percentage of runs a player has a hand in, I add the run total with the RBI total, then divide by the amount of runs their team has scored, and finally divide by two in order to get a percentage. Because there are many times throughout a season when a player scores a run without another player receiving credit for an RBI (ex: errors), the percentage is a little bit short, but it is extremely close.
This is a factor that should be heavily considered when the MVP voting is conducted, but it certainly is not an end all and has been widely discussed, RBIs are a difficult number to quantify although less so in a team context.
Defensive impact among a host of other factors are not included here, but this stat is a very good gauge in determining who the real candidates are and also breaking ties since the true value of a player to his team is apparent.
I also modified this statistic for basketball which was renamed Hands on Buckets. According to this statistical formula, Chris Paul had a truly legendary impact on his club's offense during the 07-08 season.
American League Team Leaders In HOR
- (HOR, FIC rank amongst all hitters)
Angels: Vladimir Guerrero (11.5%, 44th)
Athletics: Jack Cust (11.9%, 35th)
Blue Jays: Alex Rios (11.9%, 36th)
Indians: Jhonny Peralta (12.0%, 33rd)
Mariners: Raul Ibanez (14.5%, 5th)
Orioles: Aubrey Huff (13.0%, 16th)
Rangers: Josh Hamilton (12.7%, 20th)
Rays: Carlos Pena (11.3%, 45th)
Royals: Jose Guillen (11.8%, 41st)
Red Sox: Kevin Youkilis (12.2%, 28th)
Tigers: Miguel Cabrera (12.9%, 18th)
Twins: Justin Morneau (13.6%, 10th)
White Sox: Carlos Quentin (12.1%, 13th)
Yankees: Alex Rodriguez (13.1%, 14th)
The Angels and Rays had the best two records in the AL, but had the lowest ranked representatives in Guerrero and Pena. Neither team was an offensive juggernaut, as they finished 15th and 13th in total runs scored.
Boston's Dustin Pedroia was 38th in the MLB as he had a hand in 11.9% of their runs. I fully expect him to win the MVP award in spite of the relatively low run creation production, as his 83 RBIs are pretty good given how infrequently he hit with runners on base; Boston hitters in the 8th, 9th and leadoff spots had on base percentages of .329, .332 and .322 respectively.
National League Team Leaders In HOR
- (HOR, FIC rank amongst all hitters)
Astros: Lance Berkman (15.4%, 3rd)
Braves: Chipper Jones (10.4%, 71st)
Brewers: Ryan Braun (13.2%, 13th)
Cardinals: Ryan Ludwick (13.9%, 8th)
Cubs: Aramis Ramirez (12.2%, 29th)
Diamondbacks: Mark Reynolds (12.8%, 18th)
Dodgers: Matt Kemp (12.1%, 32nd)
Giants: Bengie Molina (11.1%, 59th)
Marlins: Hanley Ramirez (12.5%, 23rd)
Mets: David Wright (15.0%, 4th)
Nationals: Cristian Guzman (10.3%, 76th)
Padres: Adrian Gonzalez (17.4%, 1st)
Phillies: Ryan Howard (15.7%, 2nd)
Pirates: Nate McLouth (14.1%, 7th)
Reds: Brandon Phillips (11.2%, 53rd)
Rockies: Matt Holliday (13.1%, 15th)
Other Top FIC 6th: Carlos Beltran (14.3%)
9th: Albert Pujols (13.9%)
11th: Chase Utley (13.6%)
12th: Carlos Delgado (13.2%)
The Mets, Cardinals and Phillies very clearly didn't get significant production outside of the core pieces of their lineup in 2008.
Playing for a bad offensive team in an ballpark that punishes hitters, Adrian Gonzalez led all big leaguers in HOR with a mark of 17.4%.
Pujols is an easy selection (at least for me) for MVP in the National League, but Ludwick's run/RBI total was a dog's hair higher than the man who hit behind him. Ludwick had 113 RBIs of his own, but taking out 37 of the 104 runs he scored on homers and Pujols is surely responsible for a sizable portion of those 67 runs he scored. Pujols reached base 62 more times than Ludwick and didn't have the luxury of having Ludwick hit behind him.
