Baseball Fans: Runners Left On Base?

Factual Questions
1

Can a baseball fan tell me what this statistic really means, if stated by itself? For example, consider The Visitors score 6 runs 9 hits 1 error and strand 3 men whereas the Home Team scores 9 runs 14 hits and 1 error and strand 9 men.

While I realize stranding men is bad, in general, especially if they were in scoring position. But, if I only said the home team stranded 9 men without the score, you’d say that’s terrible. But, is it so bad? I mean, the Home Team did win, right?

Is there some other way this stat can be interpreted to have more meaning? Perhaps a running team average (men left on / total men on base) maintained through the season? - Jinx :confused:

2

It’s not a major statistic by itself. Obviously you can’t have more than 3 men LOB in an inning. If you frequently have 2 or 3 LOB in several innings AND you are not scoring, it should tell the manager that the team is not taking advantage of scoring opportunities, and it’s his job to figure out how to fix that.

If you have, say, a 6-run inning and 3 LOB, no problem. The team may have been getting hits consistently and the pitcher finally managed to get some fly balls or strikeouts to stop the merry-go-round. Somebody is eventually going to get the 3rd out.

Nine LOB in an entire game is only one per inning, which is no big deal. In order to be left on base, you obviously got there in the first place, which is a good thing. Sometimes I hear sports commentators moan about men LOB as if they expected every single batter not only to hit but to score a run, too. Heck, if he’s left on base it might be because he made good base running decisions and kept the inning alive for the baserunner in front of him to score.

3

[QUOTE=Jinx]
Can a baseball fan tell me what this statistic really means, if stated by itself? For example, consider The Visitors score 6 runs 9 hits 1 error and strand 3 men whereas the Home Team scores 9 runs 14 hits and 1 error and strand 9 men.

While I realize stranding men is bad, in general, especially if they were in scoring position. But, if I only said the home team stranded 9 men without the score, you’d say that’s terrible. But, is it so bad? I mean, the Home Team did win, right?

Is there some other way this stat can be interpreted to have more meaning? Perhaps a running team average (men left on / total men on base) maintained through the season? - Jinx :confused:
[/QUOTE]

Over the course of the season, the teams that leave the most men on base will score the most runs and win the most games. It’s simply obvious that teams that hit better will always leave more men on base, since they’re putting more men on base. The innings have to end sometime, and you’re not going to hit a home run at the end of every inning.

Within a single game it can tell you if a team had a frustrating day, e.g. if they scored one run and left eleven men on, which certainly does suck, but those games tend to balance out with the games where you scored eight and left one man on.

Teams (at least at the pro level) simply don’t vary all that much in terms of how well they hit with runners in scoring position and whatnot. If they get a lot of guys on base they score a lot of runs, and if they don’t, they don’t. The only other important factor is how many home runs they hit. Stuff like how many bases you steal or sacrifice bunts you make and stuff has no significant impact at all.

Regrettably, I cannot find anywhere that lists 2005 runners left on base for major league teams, but I’ll keep looking.

4

The 1976 Reds, who were really good, hold the NL record for most LOB in a season at 1328. The 1941 Browns have the MLB record at 1334. They weren’t very good.

The single game record for a team in a 9-inning game was 20 by the Yankees on 9/21/1956 vs. Boston. The Yankees lost that day 13-7.

The NL record is 18, held by many teams. The last time was by Atlanta on 6/23/1986 at L.A. The Braves won 6-5.
They had 14 hits, 9 walks and one batter reaching on an error. 24 baserunners, 6 scored, 18 were left as the Braves had no runners caught stealing and didn’t hit into any DPs. All 14 hits were singles.

5

The number of runners left on base is used in proving a box score, i.e. in checking to make sure things balance. The sum of a team’s at-bats, walks, hit batters, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies and times reached base due to interference or obstruction should equal the sum of the teams runs, outs (on offense) and runners left on base.

6

[QUOTE=Jeff Lichtman]
The number of runners left on base is used in proving a box score, i.e. in checking to make sure things balance. The sum of a team’s at-bats, walks, hit batters, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies and times reached base due to interference or obstruction should equal the sum of the teams runs, outs (on offense) and runners left on base.
[/QUOTE]

That’s true enough. I basically use it as a check digit when I am scoring. The sum runs + lob + 3 had better add up to the total number of batters recorded or there is some mistake in the scoring. (Don’t count a batter whose at bat was not complete; he will begin the next inning.) As far as the team is concerned it is not a useful stat in itself. Obviously a team that has high lob totals but is not scoring very much doesn’t seem very efficient, but it is no worse than having a low lob total and not scoring much. I suspect it is one of those random things that cancel out and don’t correlate with anything else.