In week-7 of “MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits,” we recap the most impactful hits of week-7. The order is based on the hit’s impact on Weighted Win Expectancy.
The Seattle-Oakland game of May 13 was a spectator’s dream. Four different times a player came to bat in a turning-point situation and delivered. All four of those hits show up on this week’s “MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits” of the week-7.
In this list, we recognize the 10 most game-critical base hits of the past week in MLB. Our measuring stick is Weighted Win Probability Added, which is the percentage improvement in a team’s chances of victory brought about by the hit in question.
Weighted Win Probability Added is one of that so-called New Stats, but it’s based on data that’s been around a while. Simply put, every at-bat improves or harms a team’s chances of winning, depending on the game situation and the at bat’s outcome. A three-run home run hit in the late stages of a tight game is far more susceptible to move the Weighted Win Probability needle than a solo homer hit in the early stages of a blowout.
The A’s-Mariners game featured four such moments. Control changed three times in the final three innings alone, creating one dramatic moment after another. So although it contained no major division implications, it was, from the standpoint of a contest, the week’s most continually tense.
The weekend’s Ray-Yankees series in New York did contain divisional implications, and the teams played like it. They traded walk-off outcomes, results that allowed the clubs to enter Sunday in precisely the same order as when they began.
Here are the details of the week’s 10 most impactful hits as measured by Weighted Win Probability Added.