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This season, no team has had an offense quite like the Blue Jays who once again scored double digit runs on Saturday. Toronto leads the league in home runs, and has scored 102 more runs (709) than the next closest team (Yankees, 607). They currently have a record of 73-56, and according to their pythagorean W-L total, they should be even better with a record of 82-47. With stars like Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and now Troy Tulowitzki, the Blue Jays have the most potent offense in baseball, and are on pace to set a major league record.
By FanGraphs' definition, RE24
"measures the change in run expectancy from the beginning of a player's plate appearance to the end of it. Run expectancy is the average number of runs an average team would be expected to score during the remainder of the inning based on the location of the base runners and the number of outs."
It's a fantastic tool, as it allows us to see whether or not a team is driving in runs when they're expected to. For a team like the Blue Jays, it's obvious that they would rank near the top of the list, however just one of their players, Donaldson, ranks in the top ten of MLB with a value of 52.27. While Toronto doesn't have multiple players dominating the upper ranks of the leaderboard, the Blue Jays are running away with the RE24 crown, and it's not even close.
| RE24 | |
|---|---|
| Blue Jays | 170.82 |
| Yankees | 93.79 |
| Orioles | 56.00 |
| Giants | 53.98 |
| Red Sox | 49.72 |
| Nationals | 49.54 |
| Royals | 47.06 |
| Padres | 46.70 |
| Mets | 42.95 |
| Pirates | 37.53 |
As of this writing, the Blue Jays are 114.82 points better than the third place team, and 77.03 points ahead of the second place Yankees. There's no chance that anyone will catch up to Toronto at this point in the season, and the Blue Jays even have a shot at taking down a record set by the 1998 Yankees. That year, New York collectively posted an RE24 of 183.04, which the 2001 Mariners were close to breaking, when they accrued a value of 174.06.
The Blue Jays have 33 games remaining, and while RE24 isn't a rate statistic, but rather the accumulation of outperforming run expectancy, they're undoubtedly on pace to beat the Yankees. As of today, they're projected to finish with an RE24 of 214.58, which would be the best value by over 30 points. Not only is Toronto close to setting a major league record, but they also have a chance to do something that just four teams have accomplished since 1974 (the earliest season in which RE24 is available); lead the league in HR's, ISO, wRC+, wRAA, and RE24.
| Team | HR | ISO | wRC+ | wRAA | RE24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Blue Jays | 180 | .185 | 115 | 109.7 | 170.82 |
| 2009 Yankees | 244 | .194 | 117 | 190.8 | 130.67 |
| 1987 Tigers | 225 | .179 | 113 | 116.7 | 112.29 |
| 1982 Brewers | 216 | .176 | 120 | 146.7 | 155.73 |
| 1976 Reds | 141 | .144 | 120 | 195.2 | 170.47 |
With over 30 games left to play, it's entirely possible that the Blue Jays won't be able to keep their lead on each of these categories, as the Astros are close behind in HR's and ISO. However even if another team passes them, that shouldn't diminish what Toronto has accomplished. They've put up fantastic offensive numbers in an era in which teams are starved for runs, and unless something drastic changes, the Blue Jays will set a major league record for best RE24.
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Matt Goldman is a Featured Writer with Beyond the Box Score and a Contributing Editor at MLB Daily Dish. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheOriginalBull.