The Yankee Run Factor makes its debut

The new-school world of sabermetrics expanded our sports lexicon with terrific acronyms such as BABIP, VORP and WOBA. They are basically unique ways of interpreting baseball statistics beyond just batting average and home runs and things like that.

Well, Newsday debuts today its new way of playing with numbers and spitting out figures. Granted, the Yankee Run Factor doesn't produce a catchy acronym (YRF), but it's something new and different.

We're not claiming that it's a new sabermetric that will revolutionize the way baseball statistics are interpreted -- and used when determining contracts and free-agency decisions. Rather, it's just a fun way to pass the time each Monday afternoon during the season. We're also doing it for the Mets as well at newsday.com/metsblog.

The equation is simple: Runs + RBI - HR / Games played.  It takes Bill James' original runs produced equation and makes it divisible by two different statistics. That determines the Yankee Run Factor, which explains how many runs each Yankee factors in producing per game (YRF/G). We also run it by plate appearance to determine how many runs each Yankee factors in producing per plate appearance (YRF/PA).

What this all means, who really knows, but we'll figure that out as the season goes. Feel free to include your thoughts on the YRF and its equation and such in the comments.