MLB LOB Data Through the All-Star Break

Back in May I wrote about team left on base numbers for the National League. That post explains how I derived the numbers and percentages. Now that it's the all-star break, I thought it'd be a good time to crunch the numbers for both leagues and see which teams are the best at bringing runners around to score.

First up are the left on base percentages for each league. Remember that each team's total baserunners are found by total times on base (through hits, walks, reaching on errors, etc.) minus home runs

2008 NL Team LOB%
(through 7/15/08)

1. Los Angeles, 58.64%
2. Pittsburgh, 59.22%
3. San Francisco, 59.56%
4. Chicago, 59.72%
5. Arizona, 60.16%
6. New York, 60.28%
7. Houston, 60.61%
8. Colorado, 60.75%
9. St. Louis, 60.94%
10. NL AVERAGE, 60.96%
11. Milwaukee, 61.20%
12. Florida, 61.65%
13. Philadelphia, 61.67%
14. Washington, 62.04%
15. Atlanta, 62.09%
16. Cincinnati, 62.50%
17. San Diego, 64.62%

2008 AL Team LOB%
(through 7/15/08)

1. Minnesota, 55.40%
2. Chicago, 57.52%
3. Kansas City, 57.60%
4. Los Angeles, 57.88%
5. Baltimore, 58.08%
6. Texas, 58.22%
7. Boston, 58.43%
8. AL AVERAGE, 58.77%
   
9. New York, 58.78%
10. Toronto, 59.18%
11. Cleveland, 59.54%
12. Detroit, 59.63%
13. Tampa Bay, 59.95%
14. Oakland, 61.02%
15. Seattle, 61.86%

You can find the numbers behind these percentages online here. I've also got information on the percentage of runners in scoring position each team has scored.

One last item of note: so far this season the Cubs have stranded 765 runners on base through 95 games. This puts them on pace to leave 1305 runners on base this season. According to baseball-almanac.com, the record number of runners left on base by an NL team in a season is 1328 by the 1976 Reds. That's one negative record a team probably wouldn't mind setting: after all, you have to get on base (and presumably score) a lot to get a chance to break it.