murtalianconfederacy wrote:In baseball, what does the average actually mean? Y'know, the whole .257 or .385 thing. All the plausible things I can think of somehow doesn't feel right...
Simply put, it is HITS divided by AT-BATS. For example, a player with 43 hits in 133 at-bats would have an average of 43/133, or .323 (pretty good). The last player to bat as high as .400 for an entire season was Ted Williams in 1941 (.406).
The more complicated questions are, however, "What is a 'hit'?" and "What is an 'at-bat'?" There are many wrinkles in official scoring, but generally speaking, a hit is awarded any time the batter reaches base by putting the ball in play (unless there is an error or a fielder's choice), and an at-bat is charged each time the batter comes to the plate (unless he is walked, successfully completes a sacrifice hit/fly, or the inning ends with him still at the plate, such as a baserunner thrown out stealing).
One thing NOT included: a batter is neither given a hit nor charged an at-bat for walks. As a walk has been shown to be (almost) as good as a hit in generating runs, many people think the better gauge of a player's offensive contribution is the "on-base percentage", which is in its simplest form: HITS plus WALKS*, divided by AT-BATS plus WALKS* plus SACRIFICE FLYS (*"walks" includes "times hit by pitch", which is essentially the same thing, with the addition of a bruise. ) The Oakland Athletics, for example, are known to use a player's OBP as a primary factor in whether or not to give him a new contract, trade for him, sign him as a free agent, etc.
More and more commonly, you will also see "OPS", which is "on-base percentage plus slugging average". Slugging average is TOTAL BASES (from hits) divided by AT-BATS. For example, a player with 12 singles, 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 4 home runs over 75 at-bats would have a slugging average of .493 (12+5*2+1*3+4*4=37/75).
And now you know.