Bag-Em and Blast-Em, James Loney, King of the Hill

Seems like the Dodgers standard operating procedure is to drive in runs without the use of a HR. Juan Pierre and Russell Martin are #1 and #2 in all of baseball for most RBIs by a player without a HR. What this tells me about the team is that they must be really good and OBP to drive in so many runs without the aid of a HR.
vr, Xei

I guess having a league leading .370 OB% has some interesting side effects.

James Loney last two years with the bases loaded:

Four 3-run doubles (two in the last week), two triples
Four 2-run singles, one 2-run double
Five 1-run singles
Four walks
Three sac flies
One RBI groundout
One RBI reached on error (attempted force out)

50 plate appearances, 41 RBI (2009 is 17 RBI in 17 PA)

MLB leaders in runners on base (when batting):
1) Loney 198
2) Ethier 186
3) David Wright 183 (for reference)
15) Hudson 166
22) Kemp 159
27) Martin 156
47) Blake 145

Loney has come to the plate with a runner on third and less than two outs 20 times this season.

He was intentionally walked twice, so he effective has had 18 such PA.

He struck out with the bases loaded with one out in the 9th against Jose Valverde in the Russ Ortiz game.

He has driven in the runner from 3B each of the other 17 times. Eight hits, four walks, four groundouts, three sac flies. Nobody in the majors has been better at getting the runner home in that situation.

Posted by: Eric Stephen | June 03, 2009 at 02:39 PM

A different type of 1st Baseman for our times. Wes Parkerish.

Here’s an amazing stat: James Loney has come to the plate with a runner on third base with less than two outs 20 times this season. Only four players have had more opportunities (Evan Longoria, Carlos Peña, Denard Span, and Andre Ethier). Of those 20 opportunities, Loney has driven that runner from third an MLB-best 17 times, an astonishing 85%. Of the 148 players with at least ten such opportunities, there has been nobody better than Loney in getting the run home. The major league average is 51%. Plus, two of the three times Loney has “failed” in that scenario was because he was intentionally walked. So, outside of a strikeout in the ninth inning with the bases loaded against Jose Valverde on April 21 (The Russ Ortiz Game), Loney has always delivered. On my iPhone, when I try to text “Loney” it attempts to auto-correct to “Money.” Perhaps the folks at Apple knew what they were talking about.

but it would be pretty great (in a quirky sense) for him to join the rare 100 RBI, <10 HR club. I always forget about the Molitor season with the Jays, but the Tom Herr 8/110 season is immortal to me. Herr’s stat line was one of the first stats that every jumped out at me from the back of the 1986 Topps cards, the first baseball card set I ever completed.