Billy Butler's Emerging, Right?

I was looking at Billy Butler's Baseball Reference page and noticed that his number of at-bats this season, at age 23, are nearly identical to his total at-bats during his rookie campaign. Despite Billy's apparent emergence, the numbers are eerily, eerily similar.

------ -AB-runs-hits-2B--HR-RBI-BB--SO--BA----OBP--SLG---TB
2007:-329--38--96--23---8---52--27--55-.292-/.347/-.447-147

2009:-333--38--98--28---8---38--27--59-.294-/.346/-.450-150

Which stat stands out? RBI. Despite greater or equal production in nearly every offensive category, Butler has registered 14 less RBI in 2009 than in 2007. Why? I dug a little deeper.

Plate appearances with:-Bases empty-RISP-Bases loaded

Evan Longoria: -------------184 ------136 ------10

Jason Bay: -----------------187-------118-------15

Billy Butler:-----------------216-------88--------6

Billy Butler has come to the plate 32 more times with the bases empty than Evan Longoria. That’s roughly equivalent to 8 full games of hitting with no one on base. Butler has also batted with Runners in Scoring Position (RISP) 48 fewer times than Longoria, or about 12 full games less. It’s also worth noting that in the biggest RBI opportunity, with the bases loaded, Butler has had 4 fewer opportunities than Longoria and a whopping 9 fewer than Jason Bay. Bay leads the American League with 72 RBI and Longoria is 3^rd with 70 RBI.

-Butler, for what it’s worth, is tied for 5^th in the AL with 28 doubles, two off leader Brian Roberts’ 30 and one more than Longoria’s 27.

-He’s hit 17 doubles that didn’t result in an RBI, and 16 doubles in which he didn’t eventually score a run.

-7 of his 8 home runs have come with the bases empty.

Analysis: Despite a lack of home runs, Billy Butler is doing everything he should to be about a 100 RBI producer. With nearly identical production as his great rookie season, Butler is 14 RBI behind his 92 game total from 2007. Ladies and gentleman, your revamped 2009 Kansas City Royals offense!