How to Calculate a Baseball Player's Batting Average
It is often said that getting a base hit, in which the best players succeed only a third of the time, is the most difficult thing to do in any major sport. As such, batting average is one of the most well-known and ubiquitous statistical categories in baseball. Professional players' careers have lived and died by the batting average. Whether you are following your favorite Major League players or compiling statistics of a Little League team, you calculate the batting average of any player using a simple formula.
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Instructions
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Calculate the player's total number of hits. A hit occurs when the player puts the ball into play and reaches base safely. Note that a hit is not recorded if a player reaches on a fielding error or a fielder's choice (when the fielder opts to get another baserunner out rather than the batter on what otherwise would not have been a hit). It is up to the game's official scorer to determine if an error has been made on what "should" have been an out.
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Calculate the player's total number of at-bats. This number consists of the number of times at the plate during which the player incurs a hit, an out or reaches on a fielder's choice. Note that plate appearances that result in a walk, a hit-by-pitch or a sacrifice do not count as at-bats.
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Divide the player's total number of hits by his total number of at-bats. The result will usually be a decimal smaller than one. Round off to the third digit after the decimal point. For example, if a batter has 11 at-bats and gets four hits, his batting average rounds off to .364. At the Major League level, an average over .300 is considered excellent, while an average under .250 is considered low.
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References
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