Total average is a baseball statistic devised by sportswriter Thomas Boswell in the 1970s. The statistic is designed to measure a hitter's overall offensive contributions.
The definition of the statistic is simple. A player gets a credit for every base he accumulates and a penalty for every out he makes. So a player gets one credit for a single, walk, stolen base or being hit by a pitch; two for a double; three for a triple; and four for a home run. A player's Total Average is calculated by adding all the bases together and dividing them by the number of outs the player makes.
The formula is:
where
- TA = Total average
- TB = Total bases
- HBP = Hit by pitch
- BB = Walks
- SB = Stolen base
- CS = Caught stealing
- AB = At bats
- H = Hits
- GIDP = grounded into double play
Because Total average emphasizes walks and extra base hits - and de-emphasizes singles - it has much in common with statistics developed by Bill James and other sabermetricians. Like OPS, total average gives credit to players who draw a lot of walks and hit with a lot of power: Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams and Frank Thomas for instance. James himself was critical of total average.
Famous quotes containing the words total and/or average:
“Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true.... The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)