Batting average is a well-known, old-school baseball stat. It shows how often a player gets a hit during their official at-bats.

Batting average tells you how often a player gets a hit.

A better batting average means a player gets more hits.

How Batting Average Is Calculated

Here's how it works:

Batting Average = Hits ÷ At-Bats

Example

• Hits: 30

• At-bats: 100

Batting Average = 30 ÷ 100 = .300

That would be read as batting three hundred.

What Counts as a Hit?

Here's what counts as a hit:

• Singles

• Doubles

• Triples

• Home runs

They all raise your batting average the same way.

What Does NOT Count as an At-Bat

Some plate appearances don't count as at-bats, such as:

• Walks

• Getting hit by a pitch

• Sacrifice bunts

• Sacrifice flies

Batting average only looks at official at-bats, not every time a player comes to the plate. That's why it's calculated this way.

How Batting Average Is Written

Batting average is displayed as a three-digit decimal, without a zero before the decimal point.

Examples:

• .250 → average hitter

• .300 → excellent hitter

• .200 → struggling hitter

What Is a Good Batting Average?

In modern baseball, a .300 season is considered outstanding.

Why Batting Average Matters

Batting average is useful for measuring:

• How well a player makes contact with the ball

• How consistent a player is at getting on base

• How well a player gets hits when it counts

In the past, it was the main way to evaluate hitters.

Limitations of Batting Average

Batting average has its limits. It doesn't tell you about:

• A player's ability to draw walks or control the strike zone.

• How often a player hits for power (extra-base hits).

• A player's total offensive contribution.

For a better view, analysts often look at these stats together:

• On-base percentage (OBP)

• Slugging percentage (SLG)

• OPS

Batting average is helpful, but it's only part of the story.

Batting Average vs On-Base Percentage

A player who walks a lot can be important to a team, even if their batting average isn't great.

Does Batting Average Still Matter Today?

Right, it's used less now though.

Teams look at batting average as:

• A fast stat to check

• Shows if they make contact

But it's not the only way or best way to judge hitters anymore.

Final Answer

Batting average tells you how often a baseball player gets a hit when they're at bat. You get it by dividing the number of hits by the number of at-bats.

It's shown as a number like .275 or .300. It's not the whole picture, but it's still one of the easiest and most well-known stats in baseball.