Which Players Have Participated in the Most Runs Since 1950?

Before the Tigers stunned us with the recent acquisitions of Ramon Cabrera, Jeff Kobernus, Kyle Lobstein and Brayan Pena, I was talking a lot about Run Participation Statistics.  A player can participate in his teams' runs in three ways:

• Runs Scored (RS)

• Runs Batted In (RBI)

• Runs Assisted (RAS)

A Run Assisted is any contribution to a team run that does not result in a run scored or RBI for the batter.  The ways a player can get a Run Assisted (RAS) are described below:

• A batter advances a runner to either second or third with a hit, base on balls, hit batsmen, error, sacrifice bunt, or another kind of out.  If that runner then scores either during the same at bat or an ensuing at bat, the batter who advanced him is given a Run Assisted.

• A batter reaches base and is removed for a pinch runner or is replaced by another runner on a force out.  If the new runner then scores, the batter who originally reached base is given a Run Assisted. 

A player gets credit for a Run Participated In (RPI) if he either scores, drives in or assists a run.  There is no double counting for home runs so the formula is RPI = RS + RBI + RAS - HR

As explained in the first post on this subject, RPI is not a replacement for your favorite run estimation metric whether it be Batting Runs or Runs Created or something else.  Like Runs Scored and Runs Batted In, the numbers of Runs Assisted accumulated by a batter depends on opportunities created by teammates,  Thus, RPI is team dependent measure as well. Advanced statistics which try to isolate a batters production from that of his teammates are better measures of true talent and are superior forecasters of future performance than RPI.  

So, why do we need RPI? Many statistical analysts won't have a lot of use for it other than passing curiosity, but there are some benefits.  First, it says something about how actual runs were scored as opposed to how runs theoretically should have been scored.  This concreteness should be appealing to players, media and traditional fans.  People are going to look at RBI whether we like it or not, so why not encourage them to consider something better than RBI but which still looks at actual runs? 

Because it deals with actual runs, it's also possible that RPI and potential derivatives of RPI might tell us something about run scoring that say Batting Runs does not tell us.  Just like some pitchers seem to have an ERA skill beyond what their peripherals suggest, some batters might have run participation skills which exceed their abilities to get on base and slug.

Some of the noise surrounding run participation tends to go away over the course of a long career. Pitcher wins are not very relevant on a year-to-year basis, but become more useful over the long-term.  Run participation metrics - RS, RBI and RAS - are the same way.  Table 1 presents the RPI leaders since 1950, the first complete year of Retrosheet data (required in order to calculated RAS).

The table tells us that Hall-of-Fame slugger Hank Aaron has been involved in more runs (4,521) than any player since 1950.  Current Hall candidate Barry Bonds is second at 4,490.  The leading Tiger is Al Kaline with 3,777, good for 15th on the list. 

Table 1: MLB Runs Participated In Leaders, 1950-2012

Player	PA	RS	RBI	RAS	HR	RPI
Hank Aaron	13,518	2,096	2,213	950	738	4,521
Barry Bonds	12,606	2,227	1,996	1,029	762	4,490
Carl Yastrzemski	13,991	1,816	1,844	1,166	452	4,374
Pete Rose	15,885	2,165	1,313	1,056	160	4,374
Alex Rodriguez	11,163	1,898	1,950	905	647	4,106
Willie Mays	12,179	2,002	1,847	897	641	4,105
Eddie Murray	12,817	1,627	1,917	1,015	504	4,055
Rickey Henderson	13,345	2,295	1,115	903	297	4,016
Dave Winfield	12,356	1,669	1,833	897	465	3,934
Derek Jeter	11,895	1,868	1,254	1,046	255	3,913
Frank Robinson	11,740	1,830	1,812	852	586	3,908
Rafael Palmeiro	12,046	1,663	1,835	961	569	3,890
Cal Ripken	12,883	1,647	1,695	957	431	3,868
Paul Molitor	12,167	1,782	1,307	940	234	3,795
Al Kaline	11,596	1,622	1,582	972	399	3,777
George Brett	11,625	1,583	1,596	894	317	3,756
Chipper Jones	10,614	1,619	1,623	954	468	3,728
Gary Sheffield	10,947	1,636	1,676	923	509	3,726
Ken Griffey	11,304	1,662	1,836	847	630	3,715
Robin Yount	12,249	1,632	1,406	913	251	3,700

Runs Participated In is a counting statistic which is influenced greatly by length of career, so it's good to also have a rate measure.  One possibility is Runs Participated In Percentage (RPI%) which is the percentage of a teams' runs in which a player participated.  For example, Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera participated in 253 runs out of 726 total runs for the Tigers in 2012, so he had a 34.8% RPI%.  The RPI% statistic might tell us how much a team relied on a player to score runs.  As such, some fans might find it useful in MVP voting.  The limitation of course is that a player my benefit from having less productive teammates surrounding him in the order. 

Over the course of a career, you can average a player's annual RPI%'s to arrive a career RPI%.  The RPI% leaders since 1950 are listed in Table 2 below.  Contemporary superstar Albert Pujols is the leader at 31.7%.  This includes a high of 36.7% in 2009 with the Cardinals.   Former Pirates great Ralph Kiner is second at 30.9%.  The top Tiger is Cabrera, who is fifth at 29.6%.

Table 2: MLB Run Participated In Percentage Leaders, 1950-2012

Player	PA	RPI	RPI%
Albert Pujols	8,103	2,978	31.7
Ralph Kiner	2,920	938	30.9
Jeff Bagwell	9,431	3,401	29.9
Kirby Puckett	7,831	2,566	29.9
Miguel Cabrera	6,473	2,235	29.6
Andrew McCutchen	2,497	725	29.2
Ryan Braun	3,854	1,332	29.1
Hank Aaron	13,518	4,521	29.1
Stan Musial	7,012	2,440	28.5
Al Rosen	4,309	1,468	28.2
Ron Santo	9,373	2,784	28.2
Matt Holliday	5,517	1,948	27.9
Billy Williams	10,495	3,323	27.8
Eddie Murray	12,817	4,055	27.7
Willie Mays	12,179	4,105	27.6
David Wright	5,453	1,809	27.6
Ichiro Suzuki	8,724	2,345	27.5
Barry Bonds	12,606	4,490	27.4
Hunter Pence	3,787	1,097	27.4
Minnie Minoso	7,624	2,702	27.4

 
The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet.  Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at Retrosheet.org.