Mound Talk

Continuing our series on the average roto league, we turn today to runs batted in. RBI turns out to have the least predictable pattern among offensive metrics.

Rank  RBI
1    862
2    831
3    830
4    828
5    809
6    798
7    789
8    778
9    754
10   737
11   695
12   630

As usual, we the top slot running away with the category and the bottom couple far off the pace. In between we see a solid clumping where points can be earned.

One interesting point of note, and one of the few consistencies I’ve found, is that nearly 60% of teams that finished first in RBI had Ryan Howard and either David Ortiz or Travis Hafner. Though it shouldn’t be too significant that most of the teams that won the league had two guys who absolutely raked in the ribbies last season, it is an interesting note and helps illustrate the point that the teams that win each category tend to overload on the metric and thereby suffer in other categories.

Once again, points are not gained by drafting pure rbi’s every round. Points are gained by effectively utilizing the waiver wire and planning to finish in the top third of the category and therefore maximizing total points. Consider this: The average finish in stolen bases for the team that scored 12 points in runs batted in was 9th. The average place for teams that scored 11 points was 6th and the average place for teams that scored 10 points was 4th. Clearly there is a demonstratable tradeoff and maximizing your overall points.