|
Matt Kemp drove in 100 runs and he was pretty much average as a hitter. RBI is a stat of opportunity. For instance, Josh Donaldson drove in far more runs than Mike Trout did, but Donaldson also 70 some odd more at bats with runners on. It's a context dependant stat that gives the hitter credit for a situation he didn't create.
RBI is probably the most overused and uninformative stat for hitters I can think of. It's not as bad as pitchers wins. But it's pretty useless in evaluating actual performance. Nolan Arenado drove in more runs than Bryce Harper and I highly doubt anyone outside of homer Colorado fans felt Arenado should be right up there with Harper in mvp consideration or just overall offensive production.
And how can differentiate when a guy is clutch and when he isn't? There have been countless attempts to try and find some tangible skill in guys being clutch but the result always came down the clutch player just being good all the time. Guys don't randomly "get up" or a see an abnormal boost in their skill set based on the context within the game. If you actually look at players who are considered "clutch" you'll find the overwhelmingly majority of them are good anyways.
Clutch situations is also bias. You're unlikely to see the bottom of the order guys get as many big opportunities. The best hitters hit at the top and middle of the order. Of course they're going to seem more clutch. They hit with guys in base and have more at bats in general than half of the lineup.
Brandon Phillips drove in 100 plus runs in 2013. Based on your assertion hee did his job as expected or better. Based on fact, he was a below average hitter who was the beneficiary of hitting behind on base machines Shin Soo Choo and Joey Votto. Phillips epitomized what those emphasizing analytics had been suggesting all along; RBI are context dependant and an adequate or less hitter will still tally them at high rate given the guys ahead of him consistently reach base.
If you want access how productive a hitter is from at bat to at bat strip away everything that is outside of their control and just look at the slash line of average, in base and slugging. It's the most basic yet still telling set of rate stats that can give you pretty accurate indication of whether or not a hitter is actually any good.
Pitchers? Era is good, runs against per 9, strikeouts per 9, etc.
Rate stats are always more indicative of what is actually going on and of what you can expect from that player going forward.
|