The pedantic way of saying "RBIs," maybe?

I've never worried too much about it, but it's a sabermetric article of faith that RBIs are at least as overrated a measurement of offensive value as wins are of pitching value.

Dan hit it on the head.  I've always hated the use of "RBIs", which is Runs Batted In...s?  I get why they do it, but it's pretty lousy.

The problems with RBI are twofold:
1.  They are, outside of driving oneself in with a homerun, an entirely team-dependent statistic.  It always irked me when announcers would talk about Bobby Abreu as being an "RBI" guy and that if a team wanted to score more runs, they should look to acquire someone like him.  Bobby Abreu drove in lots of runs because he played in stacked lineups in Philadelphia and New York and because he was, at the time, a very good hitter, but had he been the same hitter in the Pirates or Royals lineups, he wouldn't have driven in as many runs because he wouldn't have had the same opportunities.
2.  RBI is not a predictive stat, but rather a reflective one (and a pretty poor one at that).  It tells you what happened in the most general terms (a player or players were on base when the batter hit the ball, causing one or more of those players to score), but it doesn't even tell you what bases were occupied or what type of batted ball drove the players across the plate.  As well, just because a player amassed RBI in the past does not mean they will continue to do so in the future, as there is no way of knowing what type of situations they will encounter in 2017; at least with BA (another first-level stat) or OBP (a much better measure of offensive prowess), knowing how a player performed in the past can give some idea as to how they will perform in the future (you could pretty much know going into a season that Tony Gwynn was going to hit at least .310, have an OBP above .350, and strike out 40 times or fewer, which he did 19 straight seasons).

Yeah -- "RsBI" is technically correct, I guess. Calling it "pedantic" was a bit more critical than I intended.

At the same time, if you're talking about the attorneys general (the correct usage, as opposed to attorney generals) of multiple states, would you say "AsG" or "AGs" for short? The former would seem pretty damned awkward.

I probably should have written that RBI is solely a reflective statistic, and while you are technically right about statistics in and of themselves not being predictive, some can be useful when trying to estimate future behavior, while something like RBI or pitcher wins or saves are not.  Those stats tell you how a player performed to a given set of rules (SP must pitch a minimum of 5 innings and leave the game with a lead that his team does not relinquish to earn the W, or the myriad circumstances that could earn a pitcher a save), but cannot give you the first inkling how they will perform in the future, because game states that affect those things change from game to game.

While you are also correct about counting statistics being influenced or dependent on other circumstances (home park, team philosophy, etc.), the newer statistics, such as OPS+, ERA+, and WAR account for things such as park factors and environment of the game in order to be able to compare players across decades and even within a single season by eliminating such things as the boost a RH batter gets playing his home games in Houston (ridiculously short porch) instead of Pittsburgh (expansive left field) or the challenges that pitchers in Cincinnati or Philadelphia (bandbox parks) experience compared to those who pitch in Los Angeles or San Diego (bigger parks with deeper OF fences).

And today the Yankees announced that they were chasing head...um I mean acquiring Chase Headley from the San Diego Padres for a pair of minor leaguers. Hmmm another aging, once-good but having a couple bad seasons in a row veteran for the playoff chase that we can resign for too much money in the off-season---sounds about right for Cashman lately.

-M

For those who don't like obscure baseball stats don't look....

Headley's OPS dropped 150 points form his MVP caliber season in 2012 to 2013 ans has dropped another 100 points this season.

His percentage of had hit balls dropped by 50% from 2012 to 2013 and again this season.

These are generally signs a hitter is losing bat speed, which is the big red warning sign that a hitter will decline fast unless he is someone like Jeter who looks to hit the ball to the opposite field and collect singles and gap extra base hits. That's not Headley's style, nor is he the type who has shown the ability to make adjustments to his approach well.

On top of that he has missed significant time to injuries both last season and this season and they are injuries that affect bat speed and power in the swing, and he hasn't shown any signs that he is fully recovered. The worst part for the Yanks will be that if he does turn it around down the stretch, they will likely ink him to a 3+ year contract worth too much money and be stuck under it for a while as they struggle to get under the luxury tax threshold because so much salary will be tied up in big name players who aren't putting on the uniform any longer because of injury, suspension or what have you, so it is a dammed if he does and damned if he doesn't deal for the Yanks.

-M

Getting way ahead of yourself here. I have no idea of 3B farm options for next year, if A-Rod will retire or not,what the 3B free agent pool will look like or 3B off season trade possibilities.I'll be fine if he's productive at the postion for this year because its been a black hole in the Yankee offense for the past 2 years