While there can be many ways to measure a position player’s offensive value, one method could be to evaluate the proportion of his team’s runs that are attributable to his own offensive contributions, a quantity that might be described as “Run Share”. That approach identifies these players as most valuable to their teams in 2013.
- AL – Mike Trout, 19.1% run share
- NL – Paul Goldschmidt, 18.7% run share
Those selections were based on FanGraphs‘ version of Runs Created (wRC), represented as a proportion of the actual runs that the player’s team scored. After the jump, more on Run Shares as a measure of offensive value.
As neither Trout’s Angels nor Goldschmidt’s D-Backs were serious contenders in 2013, a valid complaint about this method could be that a player’s contribution to a losing season is largely irrelevant in that the team still lost. The rebuttal would be that a player can only work within his own context. If he’s on a lousy team, even his most herculean effort will not make his team a winner. Nonetheless, the contribution a player makes to his team’s success (however modest that success may be) ought to be recognized, and this is one way to do it.
Here are the league leaders in Run Share for each season since 1901 (only seasons played for a single team are considered). First for the AL.
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And for the NL.
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For those keeping score, here are the players to lead their league on multiple occasions.
| Leader | AL | NL | Total |
| Rogers Hornsby | 8 | 8 | |
| Ted Williams | 8 | 8 | |
| Babe Ruth | 7 | 7 | |
| Barry Bonds | 6 | 6 | |
| Stan Musial | 6 | 6 | |
| Willie Mays | 6 | 6 | |
| Albert Pujols | 5 | 5 | |
| Hank Aaron | 5 | 5 | |
| Jimmie Foxx | 5 | 5 | |
| Frank Thomas | 4 | 4 | |
| Mickey Mantle | 4 | 4 | |
| Mike Schmidt | 4 | 4 | |
| Frank Robinson | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Frank Howard | 3 | 3 | |
| Gavvy Cravath | 3 | 3 | |
| George Stone | 3 | 3 | |
| Joe Jackson | 3 | 3 | |
| Lou Gehrig | 3 | 3 | |
| Nap Lajoie | 3 | 3 | |
| Ralph Kiner | 3 | 3 | |
| Rusty Staub | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Babe Herman | 2 | 2 | |
| Carl Yastrzemski | 2 | 2 | |
| Dale Murphy | 2 | 2 | |
| David Ortiz | 2 | 2 | |
| Dwight Evans | 2 | 2 | |
| Eddie Murray | 2 | 2 | |
| Harry Lumley | 2 | 2 | |
| Jeff Bagwell | 2 | 2 | |
| Johnny Mize | 2 | 2 | |
| Jose Bautista | 2 | 2 | |
| Mel Ott | 2 | 2 | |
| Miguel Cabrera | 2 | 2 | |
| Rickey Henderson | 2 | 2 | |
| Rocky Colavito | 2 | 2 | |
| Ron Santo | 2 | 2 | |
| Tony Gwynn | 2 | 2 | |
| Ty Cobb | 2 | 2 | |
| Wade Boggs | 2 | 2 | |
| Ken Singleton | 1 | 1 | 2 |
For consistency in ranking among the league leaders, these are the players appearing most often in their league top 10 in Run Share. First, the top 25 and ties for the AL.
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Total |
| Tris Speaker | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 16 | |||
| Ty Cobb | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 15 | |||
| Ted Williams | 8 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |||||
| Lou Gehrig | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |||
| Mickey Mantle | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |
| Babe Ruth | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||||
| Eddie Collins | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||
| Sam Crawford | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |||
| Harmon Killebrew | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | ||
| Jimmie Foxx | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||||
| Luke Appling | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||
| Carl Yastrzemski | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | |||
| Bob Johnson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||
| Al Kaline | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 | ||||
| Charlie Gehringer | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||||
| Rafael Palmeiro | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||||
| Frank Thomas | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |||||
| Alex Rodriguez | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 | |||
| Edgar Martinez | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||||
| Eddie Yost | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||||
| Eddie Murray | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |||||
| Al Simmons | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||||
| Nap Lajoie | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |||||
| Ken Griffey Jr. | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | ||||
| Harry Heilmann | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |||||
| George Brett | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
And, the same for the NL.
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Total |
| Stan Musial | 6 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 15 | |||||
| Hank Aaron | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 15 | ||
| Mel Ott | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | |||
| Mike Schmidt | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 13 | ||||
| Barry Bonds | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||||
| Willie Mays | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||||
| Rogers Hornsby | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||||||
| Paul Waner | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |
| Honus Wagner | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12 | |||
| Eddie Mathews | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | ||
| Zack Wheat | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | |||||
| Albert Pujols | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||||||
| Johnny Mize | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |||
| Jeff Bagwell | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||||
| Billy Williams | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||||
| Chipper Jones | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |||||
| Richie Ashburn | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |||
| Ralph Kiner | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||||||
| Edd Roush | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||||
| Max Carey | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | |||||
| Sherry Magee | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |||
| Jake Daubert | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||
| Ron Santo | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||||||
| Dale Murphy | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||||||
| Wally Berger | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||
| Babe Herman | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |||||
| Frank Robinson | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||
| Pete Rose | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |||||
| Lance Berkman | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |||||
| Cy Williams | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||
| Willie McCovey | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | |||||
| Arky Vaughan | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||||||
| Tony Gwynn | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | |||||
| Joe Morgan | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
