Runs created

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).

See also

• Sabermetrics