Batting average is the most classic statistic for determining a player’s ability to hit.
When you attend a baseball game, you will see a bunch of numbers listed on the jumbotron. These numbers MOST LIKELY (every stadium nowadays changes the way they present statistics) display three of the most basic baseball statistics when a batter is up to the plate:
Batting Average
On Base Percentage
Slugging %
Batting average will always be listed in the form of three numbers after a decimal point. For example, Player A would have a batting average shown as .267; Player B would have a batting average of .402, and so on (wow…player B is really good).
Batting average is determined by dividing a player’s total hits by their total at-bats. This statistic is driven by hits only, so walks, outs, and other circumstances do not apply.
The higher the batting average, the more likely the hitter will get a hit.
Jeff McNeil
I covered this topic in my podcast, but I want to visualize it here. Jeff McNeil, the second baseman for the New York Mets, won the batting title in 2022. The batting title is an award given to the player with the highest batting average in their league that season.
Here are his stats since the beginning of his career in 2019 (via Baseball Reference):
His batting average has hovered around low .300 for most of his career, which, compared to the MLB average of .250, is a fantastic number. McNeil is known to do anything he can to get a hit and is successful in doing so.
However, his 2021 batting average is a significant outlier. McNeil posted a .251 batting average which is STILL technically above the league average of .250. However, this performance was not true of McNeil as a hitter. In 2022, his batting average increased dramatically to .326, earning him the batting title after a neck-and-neck race between him and Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers.
There are many reasons why McNeil’s average took quite the journey within a year. The most notable is his plate approach. (A plate approach is the action plan a batter takes when up to the plate, almost like his own philosophy of hitting.) In 2021, McNeil’s approach was to hit home runs, which he was clearly unsuccessful. He had 97 hits in 386 at-bats, with 7 home runs as well. His approach changed in 2022 by reverting to his prior plate approach of getting as many hits as possible. His performance at the plate was fantastic and true to himself as a player, with 174 hits in 533 at-bats and had 9 home runs.
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