The Boots: 2008 MLB All-Star Edition

Boot Up: Consistent MLB Performers – Last year in my e-mail, I introduced the idea of runs created within Major League Baseball statistics. The theory behind this statistic is that the thing that most correlates to personal success in the major leagues is not batting average, on-base percentage, home runs or anything simple like that. A run created is an elaborate statistic that incorporates all of the different parts of an offensive game (such as stolen bases, sacrifices, double plays, strikeouts, walks, etc.) and can be measured per 27 outs, or per 100 plate appearances.

I recently created something I refer to as Runs Created per 100 Plate Appearances Over Average Level, which shows how many “runs created” a particularly player has been above average given his plate appearances on the season. For example, in 2008, the Major League average has 12.401 runs created per 100 plate appearances. If a batter has created 30 runs in 200 plate appearances, then on the year he has been 5.198 runs created per 100 plate appearances over average level (30 – 24.802). Using that idea, I located which players have been the most consistently above average in the major leagues over the last year and a half (the limit of my database).