Do you really want the middle of your order to keep the line moving and passing the burden to drive in runners to the bottom, and weaker third, of your line-up? Or, do you want your four and five hitters to drive in runs when guys are on base in front of them?

Of course, many have different takes on this. I would bet that the stat crowd wants OBP over anything else whereas the baseball crowd wants guys in the middle of their line-up to swing the bat and drive in runs.

Which is right? As usual, it’s probably some where in the middle. You want guys who do a little of both while not being one extreme one way or the other.

Here’s a different look at it:

Since 2006, Cano’s OBP with RISP is below .300. A-Rod’s is significantly above .400. One of these players is making fewer outs and improving his team’s chances to win; the other is not. The thing about RBI% is that there’s not a huge variance between the top and the bottom. A-Rod does an above-average job of keeping the line moving while Cano is below average.

interesting, i woulda thought cano’s terrible ‘08 woulda made that number drop. And personally, I felt A-rod’s % woulda went up a little as I don’t remember him being that bad last year. I guess the only difference really is that cano doesnt hit as many bombs

FWIW, even with Cano’s terrible 2008, here are the #’s from O.D. 2008 thru last night:

A-Rod: 15.5
Cano: 13.52

It’s 14% vs. 16%

Cano had a terrible 2008 – and still is close to A-Rod here, no?

i bet if you ran it from 2008-> the numbers might look a bit different. Cause Cano had a monster 06, and a-rod had a monster 07