Bill James, the king of sabermetrics, coined the term "Runs Created", in his Baseball Abstract many years ago. Runs created, according to Wikipedia, is a statistic intended to quantify a player's contribution to runs scored, as well as a team's expected number of runs scored. Runs created is calculated from other offensive statistics. James' first version of it: Runs Created = (Total Bases * (Hits + Walks))/(Plate Appearances).
I saw another blogger mention this stat recently and decided to take a peek at its value as I have never used it before. Once again, I am looking strictly at the NL players. I took a look at a quick and dirty version of the "runs created" calculation by using the following formula:
(AB * OBP * SLG)
Here is a look at the top 5 hitters at each position according to Runs Created:
First Base
| Player | AB | OBP | SLG | TB | XBH | RC |
| Pujols, Albert 1B STL | 524 | 0.4618 | 0.6527 | 342 | 81 | 157.94 |
| Berkman, Lance 1B HOU | 554 | 0.4195 | 0.5668 | 314 | 79 | 131.73 |
| Gonzalez, Adrian 1B SD | 616 | 0.3614 | 0.5097 | 314 | 69 | 113.47 |
| Howard, Ryan 1B PHI | 610 | 0.3386 | 0.5426 | 331 | 78 | 112.07 |
| Fielder, Prince 1B MIL | 588 | 0.3718 | 0.5068 | 298 | 66 | 110.80 |
Second Base
| Player | AB | OBP | SLG | TB | XBH | RC |
| Utley, Chase 2B PHI | 607 | 0.3796 | 0.5354 | 325 | 78 | 123.37 |
| Uggla, Dan 2B FLA | 531 | 0.3603 | 0.5141 | 273 | 70 | 98.36 |
| DeRosa, Mark 2B CHC | 505 | 0.3756 | 0.4812 | 243 | 54 | 91.27 |
| Johnson, Kelly 2B ATL | 547 | 0.3488 | 0.4461 | 244 | 57 | 85.11 |
| Phillips, Brandon 2B CIN | 559 | 0.312 | 0.4419 | 247 | 52 | 77.07 |
Third Base
| Player | AB | OBP | SLG | TB | XBH | RC |
| Wright, David 3B NYM | 626 | 0.3905 | 0.5335 | 334 | 77 | 130.42 |
| Jones, Chipper 3B ATL | 439 | 0.47 | 0.574 | 252 | 47 | 118.43 |
| Braun, Ryan J. 3B MIL | 611 | 0.3348 | 0.5532 | 338 | 83 | 113.16 |
| Ramirez, Aramis 3B CHC | 554 | 0.3798 | 0.5181 | 287 | 72 | 109.01 |
| Glaus, Troy 3B STL | 544 | 0.3721 | 0.4835 | 263 | 61 | 97.87 |
Shortstop
| Player | AB | OBP | SLG | TB | XBH | RC |
| Ramirez, Hanley SS FLA | 589 | 0.3997 | 0.5399 | 318 | 71 | 127.11 |
| Reyes, Jose B. SS NYM | 688 | 0.3575 | 0.4753 | 327 | 72 | 116.90 |
| Drew, Stephen SS ARI | 611 | 0.3333 | 0.5025 | 307 | 76 | 102.33 |
| Hardy, J.J. SS MIL | 569 | 0.3429 | 0.478 | 272 | 59 | 93.26 |
| Guzman, Cristian SS WAS | 579 | 0.3453 | 0.4404 | 255 | 49 | 88.05 |
Outfield
| Player | AB | OBP | SLG | TB | XBH | RC |
| Ramirez, Manny LF LA | 552 | 0.4297 | 0.6014 | 332 | 74 | 142.65 |
| Ludwick, Ryan OF STL | 538 | 0.375 | 0.5911 | 318 | 80 | 119.25 |
| Holliday, Matt LF COL | 539 | 0.4093 | 0.538 | 290 | 65 | 118.69 |
| Beltran, Carlos CF NYM | 606 | 0.3759 | 0.5 | 303 | 72 | 113.90 |
| McLouth, Nate CF PIT | 597 | 0.3559 | 0.4975 | 297 | 76 | 105.70 |
| Dunn, Adam LF ARI | 517 | 0.3856 | 0.5126 | 265 | 63 | 102.19 |
| Giles, Brian RF SD | 559 | 0.3982 | 0.4562 | 255 | 56 | 101.55 |
| Ethier, Andre LF LA | 525 | 0.3748 | 0.5105 | 268 | 63 | 100.45 |
| Burrell, Pat LF PHI | 536 | 0.3674 | 0.5075 | 272 | 69 | 99.94 |
| Kemp, Matt CF LA | 606 | 0.3399 | 0.4587 | 278 | 61 | 94.48 |
Catchers
| Player | AB | OBP | SLG | TB | XBH | RC |
| McCann, Brian C ATL | 509 | 0.3735 | 0.5226 | 266 | 66 | 99.35 |
| Soto, Geovany C CHC | 494 | 0.3641 | 0.504 | 249 | 60 | 90.65 |
| Martin, Russell C LA | 553 | 0.3846 | 0.396 | 219 | 38 | 84.22 |
| Doumit, Ryan C PIT | 431 | 0.357 | 0.5012 | 216 | 49 | 77.12 |
| Molina, Bengie C SF | 530 | 0.3216 | 0.4453 | 236 | 49 | 75.90 |
| Iannetta, Chris C COL | 333 | 0.3901 | 0.5045 | 168 | 42 | 65.54 |
Yeah, I would say it's useful. A few things stood out for me:
1. Chris Iannetta: give him 500 ABs and he is a top 3 catcher.
2. Rafael Furcal: he had 36 runs created in only 143 ABs. Those were Pujols numbers over a full season should he have stayed healthy, but I tend to think he would have slipped off playing such a demanding position.
3. Ian Stewart: yeah, another Rockie, had 42 runs created in only 266 ABs. He should get 550 ABs next season should Colorado trade Garret Atkins. That should put him in the top 3-5 3bman in the NL. Can you say sleeper?
4. Joey Votto-he produced 98 runs created in 526 ABs in his first major league season. Something tells me he will be top 5-6 at 1b in 2009.
5. Andre Ethier/Matt Kemp-both in the top 10 of NL outfielders in their first full season.
What do faketeamers think?