Microeconomics And Offense (Part 2)

Last week’s post examined offense in the American League through the prism of capital and labor. This week, it’s the National League’s turn. To review, Quadrant I contains teams which are above average at getting on base, but below average in driving runs in. Quadrant II consists of teams which are below average at both skills. Quadrant III contains teams which are above average in terms of strand percentage, but below average at on-base percentage. Quadrant IV consists of the league’s best offenses, which are above average in both variables. In the AL, Seattle was by itself in the northwest corner of the graph as the league unquestioned worst offense. In the NL, this spot is occupied by two teams, Houston and Pittsburgh. These teams had almost identical offenses, separated by hundredths of a percentage in both strand percentage and OBP. The other teams in Quadrant II are New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Nationals hope signing Jayson Werth will improve their of...