In baseball statistics, batting average against (denoted by BAA or AVG), or opponents' batting average (denoted by OBA) is a statistic that measures a pitcher's ability to prevent hits during official at bats. It can alternatively be described as the league's hitters' combined batting average against the pitcher. It is calculated as: Hits Allowed divided by (Batters Faced minus Walks minus Hit Batsmen minus Sacrifice Hits minus Sacrifice Flies minus Catcher's Interference).
It is calculated as:
for which:
- BF is the number of batters faced by the pitcher
- BB is the number of base on balls
- HBP is the number of hit batsmen
- SH is the number of sacrifice hits
- SF is the number of sacrifice flies
- CINT is the number of catcher's interference
Famous quotes containing the word average:
“A two-week-old infant cries an average of one and a half hours every day. This increases to approximately three hours per day when the child is about six weeks old. By the time children are twelve weeks old, their daily crying has decreased dramatically and averages less than one hour. This same basic pattern of crying is present among children from a wide range of cultures throughout the world. It appears to be wired into the nervous system of our species.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)