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.

Recap

We've done a lot of posts in the last week and several ones that I think are quite interesting (perhaps because I wrote them and am a pompous ass) ended up getting buried. Here's a quick look at the fantasy analysis (the majority of which focused on pitchers) I've done this week in case you're interested:

• I analyzed the recent success of both Jarrod Washburn and Kevin Millwood and their potential for sustained success
• I took a look at the recent struggles of Josh Beckett and found room for hope
• I also took a look at the recent struggles of Justin Verlander and found him to be the perfect buy low candidate for your fantasy team
• Lastings Milledge is struggling in AAA and will never amount to half of what Elijah Dukes can do
• I chronicled the recent life of Elijah Dukes
• I highlighted an article on ESPN that analyzed BABIP rates that could provide you with invaluable insight on how to scout baseball players

Enjoy.

I love ESPN.com's headlines

I still get my sports news from ESPN. I know, how silly and outdated of me. But hey, I'm living on the East Coast right now, so their coverage seems balanced and comprehensive. On the right side of the screen, ESPN.com has a list of major sports headlines for the day. As a sports fan, I understand what they are saying, but often times, I think about them out of context. Then, I chuckle loudly and my roommate gives me weird looks. I will probably make this an ongoing thing, so bear with me.

Favorite headline for yesterday:
"Vick To Be Released From Prison Camp May 20"

Now, I know it's in relation to Vick's stay at Leavenworth Prison in Kansas over dogfighting charges, but since when does the U.S. have prison camps? Why not just call it prison? or jail? or penitentary? I thought prison camps had been out of style since the 1940s.

An older ESPN headline I liked:
"Pens turn to Satan for Game 5, bench Sykora"

Now, my first reaction was laughter, because I thought Pittsburgh had started praying to the Devil for guidance. Instead, it's just a player named Miroslav Satan. Not nearly as cool. If I actually followed hockey I would have known that. I could only imagine Sydney Crosby leading a satanic ritual before a game. I think that would draw me back to hockey.

Why Is My Pitching So Dominant?

Excluding saves (until Monday, I only had two closers, one of whom is injured), I am currently top 3 in every pitching category in my money league. I did some basic sabermetrics analysis to see if it was sustainable.

Seems so at this pace. I'm expecting Greinke to regress a bit once he lets in a few HRs, but that will probably be largely offset by regressions towards the mean by Beckett, Valverde and Lindstrom. Based on my team's current ERA and FIP, there is some, albeit slight, room for improvement.

One thing to take note of that is relevant beyond my fantasy league is a reaffirmation of my theory about saves. Only one reliever on my team currently has an ERA below 4 and two have ERA's upward of 5.5. And yet, their poor numbers barely impact my team's cumulative season ratios. There is a lot to be said about the power of bargain saves. Still, I wouldn't want Joel Hanrahan (who just lost the job to Hanrahancuffs) or Manny Corpas on my team any time soon.

On a side note, kudos to Sexy Rexy for drafting Wandy Rodriguez before I had the chance (2 W, 1.69 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 27 K in 32 IP). I seriously hate you for making me settle with Randy Wolf.