Hey stat guru's , Is there such a stat as a home run to RBI ratio, If not I think there should be?

Question

I thought of this possible new statistic as I was looking up Sosa's numbers and I wondered how many of Sosa's home runs were solo shots and how many guys he may have left stranded trying to hit home runs.
So here's what I got;
Lou Gehrig :1995 RBI's/ 493 HR's =4.04
Sammy Sosa : 1628/ 600= 2.71

Answer 1

It's not a tracked statistic, but I've heard people talk about it out of curiosity. Last year was a good year for it, because both Adam Dunn (40 homers, 92 RBI) and Alfonso Soriano (46 homers, 95 RBI) joined the 40-homer, under-100 RBI club, something that had only been done 15 times in baseball history.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/nusB

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, it's been a decade since Paul Molitor became the most recent player to drive in 100 runs while hitting less than 10 homers. It used to happen a lot, but has only occured now twice in the past 30 years.

Answer 2

no there is no such stat. it doesnt sound like a bad stat, but i think people would rely on it too much

HR to RBI just tells you how many HRs a guy hits compared to the amount of runs he drives in

so a Sheffield would have a 17/49, or .347

and Adam Dunn is 20/47 or .426

however, Dunn is batting .268 while Sheffield is batting .293

you now see the problem. that stat only shows production, not consistency. altho dunn has better numbers for the production stat (HR:RBI), sheffield's better average with slightly less production shows that he is the better hitter

its not a bad idea to sort out power hitters in fantasy leagues, but i dont think it has much use outside of that

Answer 3

It depends greatly on how well your team puts people on base ahead of you. Lou Gehrig had a slight advantage in that category by the name of Babe Ruth. Also, Ty Cobb has over 1900 RBI's but barely over 100 home runs. So a simple ratio isn't going to tell you much.

Answer 4

RBIs are entirely contextual. Comparing averages (as done in one answer) does not take into account walks, which push Dunn *far* ahead of Sheffield.


If you want a good stat for measuring pure power, you should just go with SLG or ISO.

Answer 5

Well there is slugging percentage. That's is probably the closest thing to what you're looking for.