Monday, October 28, 2013

Who Will Be the GWRBI Surprise on Wednesday?

What was the GWRBI stat?
Major League Baseball used to have a stat called GWRBI. Game-winning run batted in. The honor went to the guy who batted in the run that gave the winning team a lead they never lost. In my view they computed it incorrectly. For example, on August 11th the Red Sox lost to Kansas City, 4-3. KC went up, 2-1 in the 2nd and they never trailed after that, so Jarrod Dyson, who knocked in the second run for KC, would have gotten the GWRBI. Alex Gordon homered in the 3rd to make it 4-1, KC...but Boston crawled back with two runs in the 6th. So the Gordon homer made the difference and would have been the true GWRBI. If they still had it.

For some reason MLB dumped it.
Major League Baseball officially dropped the GWRBI stat in 1989. But with stats today including OBP, OPS, XBH, WHIP and several more, why not bring back GWRBI? If we look at the Red Sox GWRBI's in this year's Postseason we'd see several different heroes who otherwise seem to be doing little at the plate other than striking out.

What if we had it now?
Drew actually had the GWRBI in Game 1 against Tampa Bay. His 4th inning single plated Gomes, breaking a 2-2 tie. The Red Sox went on to score 9 more unanswered runs, but Drew put them ahead for good. He also tripled to left in the 4th inning of Game 2 with Gomes scoring on the play. The final score was 7-4, but Drew had the RBI that stood up. The GWRBI in deciding Game 4 was from Shane Victorino.

ALCS Game 1 was a 1-0 loss, Game 2 was sure looking like more of the same until the bottom of the 8th when the Ortiz grand slam sent Torii Hunter tumbling into the Sox bullpen. Who had the GWRBI? Saltalamacchia. Tuesday in Detroit Napoli launched one for the only run of the game. Thursday they won when Napooli scored on a wild pitch with Drew at bat (no RBI on that). Game 6 on Saturday was the Victorino grand slam in the 7th that sent the Red Sox to the World Series. World Series Game 1 saw Napoli get the GWRBI when he hit a bases-clearing triple to the 379 sign. In Game 4 it was the Gomes 3-run homer that got the honors. Game 5 was the ground-rule double by David Ross.

Red Sox GWRBI's this Postseason?
So far they go to Drew (2), Victorino (2), Napoli (2), Salty, Gomes and Ross. Collectively they're batting about .100. And you thought all they were doing was striking out.

Maybe this week we'll have a WSWRBI.

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