just score, baby

There's batting average and slugging percentage and ERA and WHIP. There's fielding percentage and various other defensive ratings. All of those numbers tell you something. But the only stat that really matters in baseball is runs. The team with the most at the end of the game wins! And runs accounted for (RAF) is a pretty darn good measure of a player's value. Just add the runs scored and RBI totals together. (Yes, this counts home runs twice, but that's OK. Homers are an automatic run, requiring no help from any teammates, and a player deserves a bonus for hitting one.) Entering this week, the best RAF by a player at one of Mississippi's so-called Big 3 belonged to Southern Miss' B.A. Vollmuth: 88. No surprise, really. Vollmuth is arguably the best position player in the state, even at less than 100 percent (he has battled a hip injury this season). USM, which is 36-11 and nationally ranked, has five players with RAFs of 68 or higher, which helps explain the Golden Eagles' success. Ole Miss' top performer in RAF is Alex Yarbrough at 74. Misssissippi State's leader is Jarrod Parks at 71. State visits Ole Miss this week — Game 1 is tonight in Oxford — for what could be a crucial SEC series between teams that have had rollercoaster seasons. Ole Miss has more pop (39 homers), but State has scored more runs (296 to 267) in basically the same number of games. State has also done a better job of preventing runs from scoring, having the better ERA (4.02 to 4.27). Even playing on the road, the Bulldogs just might have the edge in this series.
P.S. Belhaven and William Carey open NAIA postseason play today. The nationally ranked Blazers meet Fresno Pacific in Oklahoma City and the Crusaders battle Edward Waters in Daytona Beach, Fla. Don't bet against Belhaven making a return trip to the NAIA World Series. Hill Denson's club appears to have all the right pieces.