I got interested in understanding some baseball hitting stats and figured out the major ones for our leading hitters on on Conway Minors baseball team. If only the Red Sox were putting up these numbers!
One thing that I learned is the difference between at bats and plate appearances. At bats does not count walks and hit by pitches. Plate appearances does count walks and hit by pitch. So when they says so and so went 1 for 2 in a game, that means they had one hit and one out and they may also have walked. On Base Percentage (OBP) counts walks and hit by pitches and is thought by some to be more meaningful than batting average, which does not count walks. Slugging average takes into account doubles, triples, and home runs and weighs them more heavily so it means the average base achieved per at bat. Strikeout ratio is the simple ratio of strikeout to at bats.
I have not been keeping track of RBIs. Davey would have a lot since he got at least 2 grand slams. I did not have time to figure out the stats for all players but many other kids have also got hits and some are getting a high percentages of walks too. However, these three in particular are hitting very well this year!
Name | Batting Average | OBP | Slugging Average | Strikeout Ratio |
Aidan H | 0.625 | 0.909 | 0.625 | 0.125 |
Aidan W | 0.750 | 0.833 | 1.625 | 0.125 |
Davey | 0.600 | 0.733 | 1.600 | 0.200 |