Lugo: 29 RBI While Hitting Only .231

In the comments to G48, 9casey wondered how Julio Lugo could:

have a .231 avg and still be able to have 29 rbi's. And out of the leadoff spot

I answered "more runners on base", noted how much better he does with runners on base:

                AVG   OBP   SLG
Bases Empty    .217  .286  .313
Runners On     .265  .307  .412
RISP           .319  .333  .468
Bases Loaded   .500  .566  .875

then went off to get some real answers.

Lugo has 29 RBI, 4th on the team behind Ortiz (38), Lowell (37) and Ramirez (30). Subtracting the times when the batter drives himself in (RBI - HR), the team leaders are: Ortiz (29), Lowell (28), Lugo (26) and Ramirez (23).

Lugo has driven in 21.49% of the runners on base when he bats. That makes him the top Sock in the 48 games played so far.

Mike Lowell (19.86%) and David Ortiz (19.33%) are next. ... Doug Mirabell (6.9%), Wily Mo Pena (7.9%) and JD Drew (9.3%) are at the bottom.

Let's look at the regular lineup and see the number of plate appearances, PA with runners on base, how many runners on each base the batter has seen and the total runners on all bases:

          PA PAROB  R1  R2  R3  ROB
Lugo     209   79   54  42  25  121
Youkilis 206   89   60  46  21  127
Ortiz    212  113   80  45  25  150
Ramirez  206  111   75  51  24  150
Drew     169   85   64  40  25  129
Lowell   191   91   68  45  28  141
Varitek  150   77   55  41  23  119
Crisp    176   87   65  35  17  117
Pedroia  123   53   37  22  12   71

My "more runners on base" comment was not all that accurate. Lugo is 6th out of the 9 regulars in men on base when he bats. Here are the percentage of times the batter knocked in the runners from each base:

         R1BI%  R2BI%  R3BI%   OBI%
Lugo      3.7%  23.8%  56.0%  21.49%
Youkilis  5.0%  17.4%  47.6%  16.54%
Ortiz     7.5%  22.2%  52.0%  19.33%
Ramirez   5.3%  13.7%  50.5%  15.33%
Drew      0.0%  17.5%  20.0%   9.30%
Lowell    5.9%  24.4%  46.4%  19.86%
Varitek   7.3%   7.3%  47.8%  15.13%
Crisp     3.1%  17.1%  47.8%  11.97%
Pedroia   2.7%  13.6%  33.3%  11.27%

When it comes to driving in a runner from third, Lugo is more successful than anyone else on the team. He's driven in 14 runners from third (Lowell and Ortiz have brought in 13, Manny has 12). Lugo is also second best at driving a runner in from second. ... Varitek is quite bad at bringing in a guy from second and Drew is dismal with a man on third (and first, for that matter).

The Top 5 AL hitters in OBI%:

Torii Hunter      23.62%
Ross Gload        23.08%
Magglio Ordonez   22.82%
Brad Wilkerson    22.58%
Placido Polanco   22.52%

Lugo is 8th. (Ordonez has driven in a whopping 66.7% of baserunners on third.)

Curious about the Yankees? (Arranged by OBI%)

          R1BI%  R2BI%  R3BI%   OBI%
Jeter      1.4%  32.4%  59.1%  20.00%
Posada     6.2%  14.3%  42.9%  16.30%
Damon      5.0%  20.7%  35.3%  16.28%
Matsui     4.9%  16.7%  50.0%  16.24%
Rodriguez 12.2%  16.0%  37.5%  16.03%
Cano       4.3%  10.2%  41.4%  13.51%

Re Jeter: His 59.1% is 5th in the AL and 9th in MLB; Orlando Hudson leads everybody with 70%. His 32.4% mark is 2nd best in the AL, behind Estaban Guzman of the Royals (33.3%). His very low % of driving in runners from first is due to his lack of power -- 52 of his 67 hits this year have been singles.