January 20, 2012

QUALITY AT-BATS

There has been some off-season discussion about teams looking to upgrade with patient batters who can work a count, and get on base. The "quality at-bat" may be a misnomer unless the at-bats leads to runs scored.

In 2011, the NL Central teams had the following statistics:

Team      Runs Scored      Plate Appearances
Reds       735                     6328
Brewers  721                     6113
Cards      762                     6242
Pirates     610                    6063
Astros     615                     6148
Cubs       654                     6128

How many plate appearances generated a run scored?

Team      RS/ PA            PA/RS
Reds       735/6328        8.61
Brewers  721/6113        8.48
Cards      762/6242        8.19
Pirates     610/6063        9.94
Astros     615/6148         9.99
Cubs       654/ 6128        9.37

But how "efficient" were teams in producing runs per plate appearance?
Which teams scored more runs per plate appearance?


Team      RS/ PA            RS/PA

Reds       735/6328        0.116

Brewers  721/6113        0.118

Cards      762/6242        0.122

Pirates     610/6063       0.100

Astros     615/6148        0.100

Cubs       654/ 6128       0.107

The Cardinals, who finished second with 90 wins, scored almost 20% more runs than the Pirates (72 wins) and the Astros (56 wins). The Cards were 3.4% more efficient in their team at-bats than the first place Brewers (96 wins) who were close to efficiency of the Reds (79 wins). To look at it another way, it took the Astros almost 2 more at-bats than the Cardinals to score a run. It took the Cubs almost 1.33 more at-bats than the Cardinals to score a run.