Baseball is a simple game in theory. Even though many people get caught up in batting average, home runs and runs batted in, what really matters is that a team scores runs and makes outs.

When you get down to it, a player’s offensive value can be simplified down to one thing: how many runs he contributes.

A statistic that measures this is Value Over Replacement Player (VORP). VORP combines various offensive statistic into one rating that measures how valuable a player is to his team.

Baseball Prospectus gives a good definition of what goes into this statistic.

VORP for position players consists of batting runs above average (BRAA), position adjustment (POS_ADJ), baserunning runs above average (BRR – which includes – but is not limited to – stolen bases and times caught stealing ), and an adjustment for replacement level (REP_ADJ).

VORP tells how many offensive runs a player contributes relative to that of a replacement level player. Therefore, it tells how valuable a player is to his offense in the most crucial category – creating runs.

For reference, Baseball Prospectus has a scale in which to compare players. It is important to know that this scale is for the 2011 season, but it still gives an idea of what a good and bad player is.

Excellent – Matt Kemp 95.2

Great – Robinson Cano 51.4

Average – Eric Hosmer 19.9

Poor – Derrek Lee 3.2

Horrendous – Adam Dunn 22.6

Please note that VORP is a cumulative stat. This means that it does not go down, but it does go up over the length of the season. This means that, barring something catastrophic, a player’s VORP will continue to rise throughout the season. So, the following rating are not done growing, while the above ratings are.

For the Cleveland Indians, a clear-cut leader has emerged. As of July 9th, the Indians VORP ratings lineup like this:

Francisco Lindor – 30.6 (Tie) Carlos Santana – 15.2 (Tie) Jason Kipnis – 15.2 Jose Ramirez – 14.7 Rajai Davis – 14.4 Tyler Naquin – 13.0 Lonnie Chisenhall – 11.4 Mike Napoli – 5.8 Juan Uribe – 1.6 Yan Gomes – -3.9 Chris Gimenez – -4.2

As you can see, Lindor has established himself as the most valuable member of this offense. For a player who came through the farm system as a defense-first player, this is very impressive.

Comparing Lindor to other big names in baseball, he ranks two points higher than Bryce Harper, 3.8 points higher than Buster Posey, and a staggering 14.1 points higher than Miguel Cabrera.

As for other shortstops in the league, Lindor ranks higher than Xander Boagaerts, Carlos Correa and Didi Gregorius, among others.

However, baseball is not a one man show.

Luckily for the Indians, Santana, Kipnis, Ramirez, Davis, Naquin and Chisenhall all have respectable VORP ratings.

Since their ratings are already close to the “average” rating, they will undoubtedly grow beyond that as the season continues. As the playoffs approach, many of them should be about halfway between “average” and “great.”

While this may still seem underwhelming, remember that the majority of Major League players are considered “below-average.”

The commonly accepted “average” batting average is .260. As anybody with a basic baseball knowledge knows, more players fall under that number than above, making “below-average” players the commodity, not “average” players.

Since a VORP rating of 19.9 is considered average (this is not a scientific number, but a general one signifying that a VORP rating around 19.9 is considered “average”), most players on the Indians will eventually be “above-average,” since they are on pace to break that number.

These numbers give significant answers as to why the Indians offense is as effective as it is. While it may not be loaded with top-end talent, it does what it is supposed to: score runs.

MGJ

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