How to Calculate Slugging Average Percentage in Baseball

A good power hitter will have a high slugging percentage.

Baseball fans sometimes overlook slugging percentage by focusing solely on a player's batting average. Slugging percentage is an equally useful statistic because it provides an indication of a batter's power. Batting average treats all hits as equal, whereas slugging percentage gives more weight to extra-base hits. Calculate a player's slugging percentage with a simple formula that, when measured next to batting average and on-base percentage, will give you a sense of player's hitting abilities.

Instructions

1. Calculate the player's total number of bases. Add the total number of singles, twice the number of doubles, three times the number of triples and four times the number of home runs. The formula is: Total bases = singles + (doubles x 2) + (triples x 3) + (home runs x 4). For example, if a player has two singles, a double and a home run, he has eight total bases.

2. Calculate the player's total number of at-bats. Count only the number of hits, outs and times reached by error. Do not count times at the plate that result in a walk, a hit-by-pitch or a sacrifice. For example, if a player gets two hits, walks once and reaches on an error, he has three at-bats.

3. Divide total bases by number of at-bats. Round the number off to the third digit after the decimal. For example, if a player hits a home run and strikes out three times, his slugging percentage is 1.000, because he has four total bases in four at-bats. If he hits a double and a triple with 11 at-bats, his slugging percentage is .455. Note that 4.000 is the highest possible slugging percentage, resulting when a batter hits a home run every at-bat.

Tips & Warnings

• The complete formula for calculating slugging percentage is: singles + (doubles x 2) + (triples x 3) + (home runs x 4)/at bats.

• If your statistics do not list singles separately, use this formula: hits + (doubles x 2) + (triples x 3) + (home runs x 4)/at bats.

References

• MLB.com: Baseball Basics -- Stats 101
• Baseball-Reference: Slugging Percentage
• Baseball-Referenc: At Bat

Resources

• Baseball-Reference: Homepage