The RPM Report — September 10, 2018 (week 24)
Hi all, I’m Ivan Lukianchuk, the CTO and co-founder of RunPlusMinus™️and this is our weekly report about performances of Major League Baseball players and teams.
For last week’s report (week 23), click here.
The RPM Report gives you a unique insight into on-field performances based on the new RunPlusMinus™️ statistic. For more information about this statistic, please go here.
Wondering how we differ from WAR? Read this. Do we use Park Effect? Yes, read more here.
TL;DR — We’ve built a new baseball statistic that allows us to rate all of the players (pitchers, batters, runners, fielders) on the same scale: performance.
This report has two parts:
- The week’s best performers (week 24 — September 3rd through September 9th)
- All regular season data up to and including September 9th 2018.
The Best Players of the Week
We’ve reported the top 10 best pitchers and batters of the week. There are separate rankings for starting and relief pitchers.
Players are ranked on the RPM statistic. A total above zero means above average performance for the pitcher or batter. The RPMs in the report have been multiplied by 100 to make it easier to read and compare. The higher the number, the more value and impact that player brought to their team in their role as a pitcher or batter.
In each top 10 list we show how many times a player has made it into a weekly top 10 list, with 1 meaning this is their first.
The Top 10 Starting Pitchers (week 24)
Half our weekly pitchers have returned with only Price making his 3rd appearance. A range of 4.4 RPMs separate these 10 players.
The lowest starting pitcher RPM total of the week was -55.8 RPMs.
The Top 10 Relief Pitchers (week 24)
Not all relief pitcher situations (outs and bases-occupied) are equal threats. Furthermore, relief pitchers generally face fewer batters that starters. Relief pitcher ratings exclude pitchers with fewer than 3 batters faced.
Another return to 6 returners this week, with Wilson making his 3rd appearance as well as best of the week. Three Kansas City boys make the top 10 and two Astros. The RPM gap grows to roughly 21 RPMs this week, up from 18 last week.
For reference, the lowest Relief Pitcher RPM value this week was -99.8.
The Top 10 Batters (week 24)
Over half the batters this week return with both Bregman and Trout, both top 25 players, making their 4th appearance each. Bogaerts, another top 25 player makes his 3rd reappearance. Bryce Harper is the only other top 25 player on the list and he’s back for his second time. An RPM range of 3.3 separates these players.
The lowest RPM for this week was -51.8.
The State of the Game so Far
We’ve looked at last week, but let’s take a look at the entire season so far up to the 10th of September.
We’ve got a number of interesting charts ranging from top players, team rankings and most overpaid players.
Top 25 Players to September 10th
Ramirez keeps his lead, but Betts has jumped into 2nd place over Martinez and he’s fast approaching Ramirez for the best batter in the game this season! Trout holds at 4th, while Goldschmidt yields to Bregman, while Bogaerts also trades places with Carpenter. Lowrie jumps up 3 spots into 10th, edging out Baez who was overtaken by Harper.
Albies rejoins the top 25 and Votto hops into 25. Jacob deGrom climbs one spot and is now the only pitcher in the top 25, as Sale has fallen off the charts.
Things to note: a “rating of 0” is always the average over all active players, with positive values representing above average performance and negative values below average performance. Earned salary is how much of the team’s total salary did that player’s performance justify. Bolded payroll earned means a player is worth more than they are paid (in the context of their own team), and italicized and red means they aren’t. Blank ratings mean the player did not meet a minimum level of participation to be ranked on a specific component.
Where Are They Now? 2017 Top 25 to 2018
2017 brought us over 48 million data points and from that we derived the top 25 player list. How do those players rate in 2018? Below is a chart showing where each player stands today. Note that only 9 players (ranks highlighted in yellow) are still in the top 25! The rankings will change as the season moves forward.
Blackmon edges 2 spots closer to the top 25, while Votto finally makes it back at spot 25. Chris Sale was edged out of the top 25 this week falling to spot 26. Gordon falls 180 spots, Schoop gains 56.
This week we hold at 9 players in the top 25.
Team Rankings as of September 10th
Oakland continues their rise, moving up to 6th place and are hot on the heels of both the Yankees and Braves from a Ratings standpoint and the Yankees and Braves are still tied for Ratings. The Cubs are starting to lose their edge and fall 2 spots. A bunch of movement in the middle as Pittsburgh falls 2 spots, Cincinnati gains 3 and SF falls 3.
Until next time…
Stay tuned for our future reports due out every week this season. If you want to be reminded whenever we release new content, please subscribe to our mailing list to be kept up to date!
If you have any questions, comments, requests or complaints, please feel free to add them in the comments below or to email us at info@runplusminus.com
You can learn more about the RunPlusMinus™️ statistic at RunPlusMinus.com
