Runs created
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Runs created (RC) is a baseball statistic invented by Bill James to estimate the number of runs a hitter contributes to his team.
There are many different formulas for runs created, but the most basic one is:
- (H + BB)(TB)/(AB + BB)
- or,
- OBP × TB
where OBP is on base percentage and TB is total bases. This can also be expressed as:
- OBP × SLG × AB
where SLG is slugging percentage and AB is at-bats.
For whole teams, runs created turns out to correlate fairly well with the number of runs a team actually scores, though there are more complex versions of the formula which are even more accurate. This correlation is the justification of the use of OPS as a useful (and simple) player evaluation metric.
Runs created in its basic form takes into account for level of production and amount of playing time. It is sometimes expressed as a rate stat, to consider only level of production, and is usually expressed as runs created per some number of outs, e.g. RC/25 or RC/27 (27 of course being the number of outs per team in a standard 9-inning baseball game).