What Is a Good Baseball Batting Average?
Baseball Statistics: What Is a Good Batting Average?
Batting average is one of the oldest statistics in baseball. Created by Henry Chadwick based on a similar concept from the game of cricket, it has been tracked at all levels of the sport since the late 19th century. But what's a good batting average - and how important is it, anyway? Bownet® has the answers about this universal hitting metric.
How to Calculate Batting Average
To determine a player's batting average, you simply divide a player's total hits by their at-bats. An official at-bat is any time a player either gets out on a non-sacrifice play or reaches base via a hit, error or fielder's choice. So if a player has 135 hits in 500 at-bats, their average is 135 divided by 500, or 0.270. Each 0.001 is considered one point.
In modern baseball, a batting average of 0.300 or better is excellent. For comparison, the collective batting average across Major League Baseball during the 2022 season was 0.243. Hitting exactly 0.300 would have ranked a player 12th among qualifying hitters. You also can use it as a pitching statistic where "opponents' batting average" measures what hurlers give up for a batting average.
What's the Highest Batting Average in a Season?
The highest single-season average in Major League history came when Hugh Duffy hit 0.440 in 1894. For the modern era, which began in 1901 when the American League was formed, the highest batting average is Nap Lajoie's 0.426 during that 1901 campaign. The last player to hit 0.400 or better was Ted Williams, who hit 0.406 in 1941. Since then, the closest anyone has come is when Tony Gwynn hit 0.394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season.
Ty Cobb has the best batting average of all time over a full MLB career (minimum 3,000 plate appearances), hitting 0.366 while playing from 1905-28. Through the 2022 season, the best career batting average among active players is 0.308 by Miguel Cabrera, followed by Jose Altuve at 0.307 and Mike Trout at 0.303. So, if you can hit 0.300 for your career, you're in the same class as some potential future Hall of Famers.
Is Batting Average Important?
A player's batting average is a good general indicator of individual batting skill. While some statistics such as RBIs and runs scored are dependent on how one's teammates also perform, batting average is mostly an independent metric.
However, like every statistic, it isn't all-encompassing. Batting average doesn't account for walks, hit by pitches and other ways a batter can safely reach base like on-base percentage does. And unlike slugging percentage, it counts all types of hits - singles, doubles, triples and home runs - as if they're the same. Therefore, batting average should be viewed in combination with other stats to get the full picture of a hitter's performance.
Training with Bownet baseball equipment can help you add points to your batting average. Use Big Mouth® hitting nets as well as batting tees, ball caddies and other gear from Bownet to #TrainLikeAPro.