12 October 2005
Some of the following stats are not very well-known. Others are my creation and not known beyond my spreadsheet until this post. In either case, enjoy them, and let me know what you think!
Over the course of the 2005 season, 19 position players and 15 pitchers stepped up to the plate (11 more pitchers pitched but never batted). I will not show each individual pitcher's hitting stats, but I will include their totals as one line.
Read below the stats to find out what some of the unfamiliar ones mean.
| Player | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | HB | K | SB |
| Rafael Furcal | 689 | 616 | 100 | 175 | 31 | 11 | 12 | 58 | 62 | 1 | 78 | 46 |
| Andruw Jones | 672 | 586 | 95 | 154 | 24 | 3 | 51 | 128 | 64 | 15 | 112 | 5 |
| Marcus Giles | 654 | 577 | 104 | 168 | 45 | 4 | 15 | 63 | 64 | 5 | 108 | 16 |
| Adam LaRoche | 502 | 451 | 53 | 117 | 28 | 0 | 20 | 78 | 39 | 4 | 87 | 0 |
| Chipper Jones | 432 | 358 | 66 | 106 | 30 | 0 | 21 | 72 | 72 | 0 | 56 | 5 |
| Johnny Estrada | 383 | 357 | 31 | 93 | 26 | 0 | 4 | 39 | 20 | 3 | 38 | 0 |
| Ryan Langerhans | 373 | 326 | 48 | 87 | 22 | 3 | 8 | 42 | 37 | 5 | 75 | 0 |
| Kelly Johnson | 334 | 290 | 46 | 70 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 40 | 40 | 1 | 75 | 2 |
| Wilson Betemit | 274 | 246 | 36 | 75 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 20 | 22 | 0 | 55 | 1 |
| Jeff Francoeur | 274 | 257 | 41 | 77 | 20 | 1 | 14 | 45 | 11 | 4 | 58 | 3 |
| Julio Franco | 265 | 233 | 30 | 64 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 42 | 27 | 1 | 57 | 4 |
| Brian Jordan | 251 | 231 | 25 | 57 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 24 | 14 | 3 | 46 | 2 |
| Brian McCann | 203 | 180 | 20 | 50 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 17 | 1 | 26 | 1 |
| Peter Orr | 163 | 150 | 32 | 45 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 23 | 7 |
| Raul Mondesi | 155 | 142 | 17 | 30 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 17 | 12 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
| Andy Marte | 66 | 57 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| Todd Hollandsworth | 40 | 35 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| Brayan Pena | 40 | 39 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Eddie Perez | 39 | 38 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Pitchers | 377 | 317 | 14 | 56 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 12 | 1 | 117 | 0 |
| Total | 6186 | 5486 | 769 | 1453 | 308 | 37 | 184 | 733 | 534 | 45 | 1084 | 92
|
| Player | OB | TB | BIP | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | BIP% | COPS | RC | RC/27 |
| Rafael Furcal | 238 | 264 | 548 | .284 | .348 | .429 | .777 | .875 | .680 | 91 | 5.19 |
| Andruw Jones | 233 | 337 | 481 | .263 | .347 | .575 | .922 | .811 | .748 | 122 | 7.17 |
| Marcus Giles | 237 | 266 | 477 | .291 | .365 | .461 | .826 | .815 | .673 | 94 | 5.83 |
| Adam LaRoche | 160 | 205 | 372 | .259 | .320 | .455 | .775 | .810 | .628 | 62 | 4.69 |
| Chipper Jones | 178 | 199 | 304 | .296 | .412 | .556 | .968 | .844 | .817 | 84 | 8.64 |
| Johnny Estrada | 116 | 131 | 322 | .261 | .303 | .367 | .670 | .894 | .599 | 35 | 3.41 |
| Ryan Langerhans | 129 | 139 | 256 | .267 | .348 | .426 | .774 | .773 | .599 | 45 | 4.90 |
| Kelly Johnson | 111 | 115 | 218 | .241 | .334 | .397 | .731 | .744 | .544 | 37 | 4.29 |
| Wilson Betemit | 97 | 107 | 197 | .305 | .359 | .435 | .794 | .782 | .621 | 33 | 4.81 |
| Jeff Francoeur | 92 | 141 | 201 | .300 | .336 | .549 | .884 | .776 | .686 | 46 | 6.55 |
| Julio Franco | 92 | 105 | 180 | .275 | .348 | .451 | .799 | .759 | .607 | 36 | 5.30 |
| Brian Jordan | 74 | 78 | 188 | .247 | .295 | .338 | .632 | .803 | .508 | 21 | 3.10 |
| Brian McCann | 68 | 72 | 159 | .278 | .342 | .400 | .742 | .859 | .637 | 22 | 4.18 |
| Peter Orr | 53 | 58 | 132 | .300 | .335 | .387 | .722 | .852 | .615 | 17 | 4.10 |
| Raul Mondesi | 42 | 51 | 108 | .211 | .271 | .359 | .630 | .755 | .476 | 13 | 2.93 |
| Andy Marte | 15 | 12 | 46 | .140 | .227 | .211 | .438 | .780 | .341 | 2 | 1.23 |
| Todd Hollandsworth | 11 | 9 | 22 | .171 | .275 | .257 | .532 | .629 | .334 | 2 | 1.86 |
| Brayan Pena | 8 | 9 | 32 | .179 | .200 | .231 | .431 | .821 | .353 | 2 | 1.25 |
| Eddie Perez | 9 | 16 | 33 | .211 | .231 | .421 | .652 | .868 | .566 | 4 | 3.22 |
| Pitchers | 69 | 73 | 247 | .177 | .208 | .230 | .439 | .679 | .298 | 12 | 0.98 |
| Total | 2032 | 2387 | 4523 | .265 | .333 | .435 | .768 | .807 | .619 | 754 | 4.70 |
| MLB AVERAGE | | | | .264 | .330 | .419 | .749 | .819 | .614 | | 4.48 |
PA: Total Plate Appearances. AB+BB+HBP+SF+SH+CI.
OB: Times On Base. H+BB+HB.
BIP: Balls In Play. Plate appearances ending with the ball in play. AB+SF+SH-K.
BIP%: Contact Percentage. BIP/(AB+SF+SH).
COPS: Contact Percentage * OPS. See "What is COPS?" below.
RC: Runs Created. Estimation of how many runs the hitter caused.
RC/27: Runs Created per 27 Outs.
Clarifications: In the definition for plate appearances, CI stands for catcher's interference. No team had a catcher's interference called against them while opposing the Braves in 2005. In the definition for times on base, reaching on error or interference does not count because the hitter does not earn those times on base. In the definition for Contact Percentage, the denominator is at-bats plus sacrifices and not total plate appearances to prevent walks, HBP's, and catcher's interferences from counting against the hitter.
What is COPS? The theory behind COPS is that OPS may measure a hitter's raw ability to hit the ball well, but no input of OPS (OBP and SLG) accounts for the extra disadvantage of strikeouts as opposed to outs when the ball is in play (potentially "productive outs". Therefore, I apply Contact Percentage to OPS as a multiplier, which gives patient, power hitters an edge if they're also good contact hitters. Not surprisingly, Albert Pujols is at the top of the list for all of MLB, a good distance ahead of Derrek Lee and Vlad Guerrero, who are miles ahead of anyone else.
How is your version of Runs Created different? I combine two different methods of deriving Runs Created to get mine. The first (RC1) is OB*TB/PA. The second (RC2) is something I came up with using ATB (actual total bases or adjusted total bases):
ATB: TB+BB+HBP+SB-(2*CS)
RC1: OB*TB/PA
RC2: ATB*ATB/(PA*2)
RC: (RC1+RC2)/2
In the formula for ATB, I subtract caught-stealing twice because it generally eliminates two bases. That is, a runner is usually thrown out at second-base. Alternative, it creates an out and eliminates a baserunner -- either way, it's a double whammy and should be counted as such.
As for why I complicate the calculation of RC beyond what you may have seen, it's just my preference. But I thought I would explain the numbers I'm throwing at you before I leave you with them.
