The end of RBIs?

No, it doesn't.

 

Of course you explain what happened in an individual game.

 

There is nothing truly awful about RBI until you get someone saying "Don Mattingly had six 100-RBI seasons, he should be in the HOF!"
They are dependent what the hitters do in front of you. They fail to measure anything independently. So long as you're aware of that, keep track of RBI all you want. You can even think they're really important. You're wrong, but you can think that.
And, as with pitching wins, anyone who cannot divest runs which are scored in a baseball game and the contrived statistic of Runs Batted In should shut the fuck up, immediately if not sooner.

 

Because the info is meaningful? Those RBI are meaningful and who drove them in is important? Hmmmm.

 

Because you are explaining what events led to the outcome in a single game.

You don't see the difference between that and evaluating a player's performance over hundreds of plate appearances over the course of a season?

 

Most runs aren't scored until someone drives them in. Do you prefer a popup with men on base?

 

You are putting up some pretty airtight arguments.

 

Logic is your friend. You describe how runs scored in any eventual game. The proper question to judge your hypothesis is this: Do you only describe the runs that scored when an RBI was awarded? If your answer is "No, you describe them all," then you should realize your argument is pretty fucking stupid.

 

RBI is only .7 as important as OPS+

 

Dick, I have no problem with using a variety of numbers to evaluate someone's overall performance. I happen to believe that OPS is a stat that tells you a whole lot about a hitter. I just don't believe you can discount the importance of an RBI, especially with two outs. The whole point of the game is to get runners around the bases.

 

Face it MrHavercamp, it's a man's world.

 

An RBI is important.

The number of RBI's that someone compiles over the course of a season, however, do not tell me anything particularly useful about that individual player's season-long performance.