Who’s Really Driving Them In?

One of the great things that you can find at BaseballMusings.com is RBI Percentages. In my “perfect world,” instead of seeing “RBI” totals in the graphics that they show on T.V., when a batter steps to the plate, they would show “RBI%” instead. After all, what’s more valuable to a team – a batter who drives in 100 runs and leaves 300 men on base or a batter who drives in 80 runs and leaves 50 men on base?

To date, via BaseballMusings.com, here are the Yankees leaders in RBI% -

Player		Runners	RBI	HR	RBI%
Johnny Damon	254	59	12	18.5
Xavier Nady	342	84	22	18.1
Brett Gardner	50	9	0	18.0
Bobby Abreu	398	84	15	17.3
Derek Jeter	351	66	9	16.2
Hideki Matsui	221	44	9	15.8
Jason Giambi	382	87	28	15.5
Alex Rodriguez	393	91	32	15.0
Wilson Betemit	117	21	5	13.7
Jorge Posada	141	22	3	13.5
Robinson Cano	363	61	13	13.2
Chad Moeller	58	8	1	12.1
Ivan Rodriguez	243	35	7	11.5
Richie Sexson	230	36	12	10.4
Melky Cabrera	296	36	8	9.5
Shelly Duncan	53	6	1	9.4
Jose Molina	161	15	2	8.1
Morgan Ensberg	60	4	1	5.0

The numbers above for Nady, I-Rod, and Sexson also reflect what they did prior to joining the Yankees.

Over the last three seasons, guys like Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, Justin Morneau, Vladimir Guerrero, Lance Berkman, Ryan Howard, David Wright, David Ortiz and Albert Pujols have pretty much been around 18% to 20% in terms of their RBI%. So, for me, this says that your really good RBI guys should be at 18% or over.

Note how many here, on the Yankees list, are at 18% or higher. Tells you something, huh?