The Worst 100 RBI seasons in Giants history

The RBI is a hallowed stat for traditional baseball fans. It is said that driving in runs is an important skill and that without proven run producers, a team will fall on its face offensively. The modern take is that an RBI is due more to lineup placement and the ability of the guys in front of the batter to get on base and not a good descriptive statistic for how good a player is.

To test this, Baseball Reference had a post on this subject back in August and it made me want to look at how the Giants fared in this category. They looked at players with 100 or more RBIs in a season and then sorted by lowest Wins Above Replacement and there were some real bad seasons in there.

For some of these guys, they were "producing runs" but costing their teams quite a bit and probably didn't deserve the playing time that they were given.

Rk	Player	WAR	RBI	Year	Age	Tm	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	Pos
1	Dante Bichette	-2.8	133	1999	35	COL	151	593	104	177	38	2	34	54	84	6	.298	.354	.541	*7/D
2	Ruben Sierra	-2.4	101	1993	27	OAK	158	630	77	147	23	5	22	52	97	25	.233	.288	.390	*9D
3	Joe Carter	-1.4	115	1990	30	SDP	162	634	79	147	27	1	24	48	93	22	.232	.290	.391	*873
4	Tony Armas	-1.4	107	1983	29	BOS	145	574	77	125	23	2	36	29	131	0	.218	.254	.453	*8D
5	Joe Carter	-1.3	107	1996	36	TOR	157	625	84	158	35	7	30	44	106	7	.253	.306	.475	*73D
6	Eddie Robinson	-1.3	102	1953	32	PHA	156	615	64	152	28	4	22	63	56	1	.247	.322	.413	*3
7	Joe Carter	-1.2	102	1997	37	TOR	157	612	76	143	30	4	21	40	105	8	.234	.284	.399	D379
8	Joe Pepitone	-0.6	100	1964	23	NYY	160	613	71	154	12	3	28	24	63	2	.251	.281	.418	*38/9
9	George Bell	-0.5	112	1992	32	CHW	155	627	74	160	27	0	25	31	97	5	.255	.294	.418	*D7
10	Bill Buckner	-0.5	102	1986	36	BOS	153	629	73	168	39	2	18	40	25	6	.267	.311	.421	*3D
11	Jorge Cantu	-0.3	117	2005	23	TBD	150	598	73	171	40	1	28	19	83	1	.286	.311	.497	*45D
12	Ernie Banks	-0.3	106	1969	38	CHC	155	565	60	143	19	2	23	42	101	0	.253	.309	.416	*3
13	Del Ennis	-0.3	105	1957	32	STL	136	490	61	140	24	3	24	37	50	1	.286	.332	.494	*79
14	Ray Pepper	-0.3	101	1934	28	SLB	148	564	71	168	24	6	7	29	67	1	.298	.333	.399	*78/9
15	Rico Brogna	-0.2	102	1999	29	PHI	157	619	90	172	29	4	24	54	132	8	.278	.336	.454	*3
16	Danny Tartabull	-0.2	101	1996	33	CHW	132	472	58	120	23	3	27	64	128	1	.254	.340	.487	*9/D
17	Tony Perez	-0.1	105	1980	38	BOS	151	585	73	161	31	3	25	41	93	1	.275	.320	.467	*3D

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/17/2011.

Some of these guys were just plain bad, so how have the Giants done? Much better. Here is the San Francisco Giants top 10 worst seasons with 100+ RBIs:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	RBI	Year	Age	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	Pos
1	Orlando Cepeda	3.1	114	1962	24	162	676	625	105	191	26	1	35	37	97	10	.306	.347	.518	*3/79
2	Orlando Cepeda	3.4	105	1959	21	151	647	605	92	192	35	4	27	33	100	23	.317	.355	.522	*37/5
3	J.T. Snow	3.5	104	1997	29	157	637	531	81	149	36	1	28	96	124	6	.281	.387	.510	*3
4	Jeff Kent	3.7	101	1999	31	138	585	511	86	148	40	2	23	61	112	13	.290	.366	.511	*4/3
5	Jack Clark	3.8	103	1982	26	157	659	563	90	154	30	3	27	90	91	6	.274	.372	.481	*9
6	Matt Williams	4.4	122	1990	24	159	664	617	87	171	27	2	33	33	138	7	.277	.319	.488	*5
7	Dick Dietz	4.5	107	1970	28	148	612	493	82	148	36	2	22	109	106	0	.300	.426	.515	*2
8	Jeff Kent	4.6	121	1997	29	155	651	580	90	145	38	2	29	48	133	11	.250	.316	.472	*43
9	Will Clark	4.9	116	1991	27	148	622	565	84	170	32	7	29	51	91	4	.301	.359	.536	*3
10	Jeff Kent	5.0	128	1998	30	137	594	526	94	156	37	3	31	48	110	9	.297	.359	.555	*4/3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 2/17/2011.

Orlando Cepeda's worst season was only the 375th worst since 1901. None of these players seem to have not earned their playing time and, in fact, these were all well above average seasons.

I am not sure if that means the Giants have been better than other teams through the years at not lusting after RBI numbers or just got lucky that the players they trusted as "run producers" didn't have good RBI numbers and bad numbers every where else.

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