Runners in scoring position

[NewMarketSean]

What are we, 3 for 40 something?

How come this is consistently a problem? It has gotten to the point where I expect no runs when the team has runners on with less than 2 outs. So frustrating.

[DrungoHazewood]

Actually they're 128-for-523, with a .696 OPS, compared to a .720 OPS overall. With runners on they're OPSing .733, and with no one on it's .712. So their performance is pretty typical for a team that OPS's .720. League average is .728.

[whynot138]

Actually they're 128-for-523, with a .696 OPS, compared to a .720 OPS overall. With runners on they're OPSing .733, and with no one on it's .712. So their performance is pretty typical for a team that OPS's .720. League average is .728.

Good data! I'm thinking we were hitting much better then our average OPS earlier in the year and recently much lower. It sure seems we can't even get a fly ball when we need one right now. Anyway to do the splits by month?

[NewMarketSean]

Actually they're 128-for-523, with a .696 OPS, compared to a .720 OPS overall. With runners on they're OPSing .733, and with no one on it's .712. So their performance is pretty typical for a team that OPS's .720. League average is .728.

Well they are in a slump with RISP, no doubt about it. They haven't scored more than 3 runs in 11 days.

[Dannyboy]

Seems to me they had also been in a slump with homeruns too. Hopefully last night signaled the end of that.

[Frobby]

Actually they're 128-for-523, with a .696 OPS, compared to a .720 OPS overall. With runners on they're OPSing .733, and with no one on it's .712. So their performance is pretty typical for a team that OPS's .720. League average is .728.

Hitting with RISP is always a very streaky thing. Last year, I kept track by month (these are cumulative numbers):

Through April: .937
Through May: .828
Through June: .764
Through July: .729
Through August: .745
Through September: .748

That means our month-by-month OPS with RISP looked something like this: .937, .721, .700, .624, .809, .763. Those are estimates.

This year, I did not make a note of how the Orioles had done is RISP situations at the end of April, but I did find a post from April 17 saying they had a .626 OPS in RISP situations through that date. By the end of May, they were at .703, so clearly it was much better in May than in April. The .696 they're at now reflects the current cold streak, but they did very well in RISP situations in the first part of June.

I'm sure the RISP hits will come, though it's frustrating right now. That's just baseball.

The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that the Orioles have only 612 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, compared to 713 league average. We are last in the league in that category, and it's not close. That's a function of the low team OBP, and to some extent, the team's lack of speed.

[DrungoHazewood]

Well they are in a slump with RISP, no doubt about it. They haven't scored more than 3 runs in 11 days.

Yes, that is true. But their track record points toward that being a slump, not a long-term issue.

[DrungoHazewood]

The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that the Orioles have only 612 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, compared to 713 league average. We are last in the league in that category, and it's not close. That's a function of the low team OBP, and to some extent, the team's lack of speed.

That's about 95% on the OBP issues. And some on the OBP distribution. Nick has batted 225 times, only 94 with anyone on base (42%), and 55 with RISP (24%). For comparison Robinson Cano and Arod are batting over half the time with runners on and 27-28% of the time with RISP. It's hard to move batters into scoring position when your best hitters are up so often with nobody on base.

[OFFNY]

Hitting with RISP is always a very streaky thing. Last year, I kept track by month (these are cumulative numbers):

Through April: .937
Through May: .828
Through June: .764
Through July: .729
Through August: .745
Through September: .748

That means our month-by-month OPS with RISP looked something like this: .937, .721, .700, .624, .809, .763. Those are estimates.

This year, I did not make a note of how the Orioles had done is RISP situations at the end of April, but I did find a post from April 17 saying they had a .626 OPS in RISP situations through that date. By the end of May, they were at .703, so clearly it was much better in May than in April. The .696 they're at now reflects the current cold streak, but they did very well in RISP situations in the first part of June.

I'm sure the RISP hits will come, though it's frustrating right now. That's just baseball.

The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that the Orioles have only 612 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, compared to 713 league average. We are last in the league in that category, and it's not close. That's a function of the low team OBP, and to some extent, the team's lack of speed.

OOOExcellent post. And without looking it up, can I guess that the Yankees have considerably more plate appearances with RISP than the Orioles ??? I'm asking because much has been made of their terrible batting average with RISP this season, and they have been winning a lot in spite of it. I'm sure that there are other factors to the Yankees' winning ways also, but I'm wondering if this is a glaring difference (getting more opportunities with RISP) between them and us.

[OFFNY]

That's about 95% on the OBP issues. And some on the OBP distribution. Nick has batted 225 times, only 94 with anyone on base (42%), and 55 with RISP (24%). For comparison Robinson Cano and Arod are batting over half the time with runners on and 27-28% of the time with RISP. It's hard to move batters into scoring position when your best hitters are up so often with nobody on base.

I didn't read this until after I made my last post.

[Frobby]

OOOExcellent post. And without looking it up, can I guess that the Yankees have considerably more plate appearances with RISP than the Orioles ??? I'm asking because much has been made of their terrible batting average with RISP this season, and they have been winning a lot in spite of it. I'm sure that there are other factors to the Yankees' winning ways also, but I'm wondering if this is a glaring difference (getting more opportunities with RISP) between them and us.

The Yankees have batted 730 times with runners in scoring position, which surprisingly, is only 5th in the league. Much is made of their low BA in RISP situations, but they also have the most HR in RISP situations and their ISO is pretty good. All in all, the Yankees are 4th in runs scored and will probably move up the ladder as their RISP numbers inevitably improve.

[Frobby]

On the night of June 14, the Orioles played the Pirates at Camden Yards. They scored 12 runs in that game and went 8-for-17 when batting with runners in scoring position.

It is kind of hard to believe, but in the 10 games since, they have a total of just five more hits with runners in scoring position.

Here is the rundown with RISP since that game:

6-15 vs. Atl: 0-for-6
6-16 vs. Atl: 3-for-5
6-17 vs. Atl: 0-for-3
6-18 vs. NYM: 0-for-0
6-19 vs. NYM: 0-for-9
6-20 vs. NYM: 0-for-5
6-22 vs. Wash: 1-for-7
6-23 vs. Wash: 0-for-3
6-24 vs. Wash: 0-for-6
6-26 vs. LAA: 1-for-8

You can do the math to see the Orioles are just 1-for-17 (.059) over the last three games, 2-for-41 (.049) over the past eight and just 5-for-52 (.096) over the last 10 with RISP and they have scored just 20 runs in those 10 games.

http://www.masnsports.com/steve_mele...reak-ends.html

You can also do the math and determine that before the streak started, the O's were hitting a solid .261 with runners in scoring position.