Analysis of Runs Created in 2010

Sabermetricising the ABL's most productive hitters.

Bret Schwartz paced the league with 37.15 RC in 2010

Now that the off-season has fully sunk in and the final 2010 statistics are upon us, we can start the work of going through the stat sheets and taking apart the numbers, and try to make sense of it all. During the last off-season, one of my more popular statistical analysis posts was using the Runs Created stat, so I'd like to start this winter off on the right foot by reviving that old buddy -- and expanding upon it.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term "sabermetrics" or the more advanced stats, here's a quick rundown. The idea is that the simple stats every baseball fan is familiar with all have little flaws that make them faulty or not quite as useful as they could be. For example, you can use AVG to determine if someone is a good hitter, but you're neglecting how often they walk, sacrifice, get extra-base hits, etc. You could look at RBI as a measure of productiveness, but then you're not just looking at one player but also the guys who bat -- and either reach base or fail to do so -- in the order ahead of him. At the end of the day, though, the only thing that matters is how many runs a player helped put on the board, regardless of how he did it. Runs Created tries (rather successfully) to isolate one player's performance, and at the same time, include all aspects of a player's offense. If you read last year's post, I used the exact same formula that I did for the 2009 players, including the constant that I derived empirically to adjust to the ABL.

So here (after the jump!) is the table of the top 25 ABL batters in Runs Created in 2010:

8/7/2010 Odds & Ends

Hey guys, with the season over and the off-season so young, it seems like there's not very many odds, nor many ends this week. So I'll make this quick. Check out the three blurbs below and then stay tuned in for the Oilers game coming up today.

- UPDATE: I'll just throw this in here since it kind of fits. I've had a bit of a family tragedy and I might need to take a couple of "personal days" from blogging. I'm not saying I definitely won't post, but I might not do so with my usual vigor and if I have to leave town for a few it won't be the first thing on my mind. Just to let you know that any interruption will be short-term and not to worry.

- Here's an article on my all-time favorite Goldpanner and one of my top players in general, Bill "Spaceman" Lee, from a fantastic blog called The Golden Sombrero. The article is basically about how Lee did and said all kinds of wacky things, although it neglects to mention how he came up to Alaska to play for this team called the Goldpanners back when that was still kind of a crazy thing to do. Anyway, thumbs up on the article and the blog, you should check it out.

- For those of you who are interested in how the season league leaders list shook out, check out the stats on the Glacier Pilots' website. They've got season league leaders in all categories. Some really interesting stuff on there...look at all the Miners on the batting average category. I didn't think I'd see anyone challenge Drew Heid's batting title last year, but Brett Schwartz has pulled it off, hitting over .400 for the season.

Live blogging the 2010 MLB Draft

Kevin Jacob, drafted by New York Yankees.
Photo courtesy of AnchorageBucs.com

It's day one of the 2010 MLB draft, and I will be doing what I like to call "more-or-less-live blogging" it. Obviously my primary concern will be former ABL players who are drafted, and I'll do a little analyzing as we go along. I just got into the house and missed picks 1-5, but no ABLers yet. I would be surprised if there weren't a few to go off the board here soon, so here we go!

3:39 PM Day 1: No ABL draft picks yet. Gone through picks 1 through 6. Just waiting for the name James Paxton to be called! I'll make the post as soon as it's official, or if someone else (Kevin Jacob? Logan Darnell?) comes up before him.

4:11 PM: Still waiting. I have to confess that this is the first time I've ever watched the draft live. I have to wonder, is it really necessary for teams to be "on the clock" this long in the first round? I mean, if I were a Major League GM, I would start preparing by making a list of my top draft choices and my very first pick would be the highest ranked player left on my list. It wouldn't take a lot of phone calls and hand-wringing or whatever the heck these clowns are doing. But obviously I'm not a Major League GM so I don't know.

6:42 PM: The first/comp A rounds are complete and none of our top draft picks are anywhere to be seen. I checked a few of the big prospect watchers' draft boards and our guys have slid completely off the first-round radar, and the MLB teams seem to agree with their analysis. I wonder when the last time we went through a first round without any ABL players was? In any event, draft day is only one day out of a player's career, and although I expected to have at least one guy out of our league, and as many as three, drafted by now, the second round should be a lot more action-packed. Stay tuned as we pick up the coverage tomorrow.

2010 Draft Eligibles: Anchorage Glacier Pilots

With every passing day we're hurtling headlong toward the biggest day of the year for prospect watchers: the MLB Rule 4 draft. We're going through the ABL team by team, seeing which former players are eligible to be drafted this year, and today we're going to have a peek at the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. The Pilots have one of the most exciting draft classes in the league this year, so let's see who they've got.

The biggest names on the list have to be a pair of Pilot pitchers out of the University of Kentucky: James Paxton and Logan Darnell. Paxton is a big, hard-throwing southpaw with a fastball that he can run up to about 98 mph, settling in at about 95. He compliments this with a power slider and a changeup. We mentioned this the other day when we updated the Pro Prospects list, but Paxton somehow rubbed the NCAA the wrong way and instead of butting heads with them all year long, he opted out of his senior season at UK and went to work in the independent leagues (this does not nullify him for the MLB draft).

His teammate Darnell took over the role of staff ace for the Wildcats after he proved he could make the move from the pen with a stellar Glacier Pilots season last year. Baseball America named him the sixth-best prospect in the ABL for his efforts. Darnell is also a lefty; he doesn't throw as hard (topping out at 91-92) but he has a three-quarters delivery that helps him generate some interesting movement.