Runs produced is a SABERmetric statistic that describe a hitter's overall effectiveness by measuring his ability to produce runs for team either by scoring them himself or driving them in at the plate. Runs produced was created during the 1970's and the way it is calculated is adding runs to runs batted in then subtracting home runs.
The players listed below are runs produced legends who had a full career, an ability to produce runs and are Baseball Almanac's top one-thousand all-time runs produced leaders. Note: A bold faced entry denotes that the player was active during the previous Major League season.
"The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that's it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it." - Hall of Famer Ty Cobb
Why is the Runs Produced statistic not considered mainstream? Should it be? Do you prefer Estimated Runs Produced? Is Runs Created an even better tool? Share your thoughts on our baseball message boards today where we have an entire forum dedicated to the discussion of advanced baseball statistics.
Did you know that Ty Cobb had every single one of his Runs Produced in the American League and that his National League counter part is Cap Anson?
Neither Cobb nor Anson had all their Runs Produced with the same team though. Those with the highest ranking in Career Runs Produced are Stan Musial, fifth overall with all Runs Produced coming with the National League's St. Louis Cardinals, and Lou Gehrig, sixth overall with all Runs Produced coming with the American League's New York Yankees.