The Most And Least RBI-Efficient Batters Of All Time

Despite the utter uselessness of RBIs, I thought I might look at which players were the most (and least) "RBI efficient" in their career. I calculated RBI efficiency by taking a player's career RBI total and dividing it by his career extra base hit (XBH) total. In essence, I am calculating which players racked up the most runs batted per base. I only looked at hitters with 5000+ PA. You can see the whole chart by clicking here, but below I've listed the top and bottom RBI/xBH hitters.

TOP 36 ALL TIME RBI-EFFICIENT HITTERS

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I would never have guessed it if you asked me, but Cap Anson is the all time leader is RBI per base. On the leaderboard, you also find such famous middle-of-the-order hitters as Hank Greenberg, Hack Wilson, Cecil Fielder and some guy name Lou Gehrig.

BOTTOM 36 ALL TIME RBI-EFFICIENT HITTERS

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As you might guess, the least efficient RBI producers tend to be light hitting lead off men. Juan Pierre, Ichiro Suzuki, Luis Castillo, Vince Coleman, etc. No surprise here.

Perhaps I'll follow this up with OBP-Efficient Runs scorers later. Honestly, these images mean very little. RBIs are at least as much the byproduct of lineup placement and the OBPs of those who bat in front of you as they are of hits percentage and ISO. Still, it is fun to look at which hitters produced more RBI per base than others. Utterly useless, but interesting to note.