Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Does anyone know the best way to interpret the many and varied spreadsheets showing Runs Created, LOPS etc etc? I have been on the "Somworld" site and downloaded some spredsheets but have a problem seeing what is relevant to me as a strat player. Does anyone have any links which will lead me to relevant data or any ideas how to interpret what I have got?

What, by the way, is runs created? I've wondered that. Wouldn't RBI's be "runs created"?

Runs created is a formula that attempts to estimate how many runs a player contributes to his team. I believe the basic formula is (Hits+Walks)*total bases / plate appearances (maybe simpler as OBP*TB). I've seen more complicated versions that include things like stolen bases and HBP even GIDP's and sacrifices, but the basic premise is trying to figure out how many runs a single player accounts for based on his OBP and his ability to advance runners (total bases).

I thought "runs created" was Runs Scored + RBI - HR's.

The basic idea of "runs created"(RC) is that OBP * Total Bases very closely predicts how many runs you will score over a long period of time. There are some amazing formulas out that include more details with walks, stolen bases, caught stealing, sacrifice flies, sacrifice bunts, and double plays. But yeah, the basic formula is OBP*TB. If you don't believe it's a good predicter, just go to the final team stats of any team from any year and start multiplying OBP*TB and comparing the result to runs scored for the season. It always comes pretty close. RC/27 (posted on the individual stats leaders page in your league) is a calculation of how many runs per 27 outs (one game) a team of 9 of the same guy would score. Bonds always rules this category going away.
By the way, Runs + RBI - HRs is "runs produced." It's a much less effective way of analyzing a player's true cability for affecting games because runs scored and runs driven in are based so much on situational circumstances. That's why a guy like Travis Hafner will be just as valuable as David Ortiz in next year's game. He would have had just as many RBIs and Runs if he were playing in the same offense as Ortiz. Just look at his OBP and SLG.

"By the way, Runs + RBI - HRs is 'runs produced.'"


Aha. I thought I'd seen it called "Runs Created" years ago, but I'm not sure and in any case it's obviously not what's being discussed here. Thanks for clearing that up.

This is the formula [i:5a21efb525]I[/i:5a21efb525] thought was used for [b:5a21efb525]RC[/b:5a21efb525] (runs created):

[(H + BB + HBP - CS - GIDP) times (Total bases + .26[BB - IBB + HBP] + .52[SH + SF + SB])] divided by (AB + BB + HBP + SH+ SF)

This is from the espn statistics website.

J-Pav...absolutely, that will get you even closer to predicting how many runs a team should score...still, if you break it down, the basic philosophy is OBP*TB. It's just that OBP*TB doesn't include enough details from SB, CS, DP, SH, SF, bases from BB, etc. to predict as well as possible. Nonetheless, it's a quick way to estimate RC.

Simpler is often better, too! :D