baseball statistics Baseball statistics play an important role in evaluating the progress of a player or team. Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itsel ...

, batting average against (denoted by BAA or AVG), also known as opponents' batting average (denoted by OBA), is a statistic that measures a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or dr ...

's ability to prevent

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album s ...

during official

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s. It can alternatively be described as the league's hitters' combined

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

against the pitcher.

Definition

Batting average against is calculated as:

BAA = \frac

for which: *H is the number of

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

s allowed by the pitcher *BF is the number of

batters faced In baseball statistics, Batters Faced (BF), also known as Total Batters Faced (TBF) or Batters Facing Pitcher (BFP) is the number of batters who made a plate appearance before the pitcher in a game or in a season. For a given game, the number of ...

*BB is the number of

base on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Sec ...

*HBP is the number of

hit batsmen In baseball, hit by pitch (HBP) is an event in which a batter or his clothing or equipment (other than his bat) is struck directly by a pitch from the pitcher; the batter is called a hit batsman (HB). A hit batsman is awarded first base, provided ...

*SH is the number of

sacrifice hit In baseball, a sacrifice bunt (also called a sacrifice hit) is a batter's act of deliberately bunting the ball, before there are two outs, in a manner that allows a baserunner to advance to another base. The batter is almost always put out, an ...

s *SF is the number of

sacrifice flies In baseball, a sacrifice fly (sometimes abbreviated to sac fly) is defined by Rule 9.08(d): "Score a sacrifice fly when, before two are out, the batter hits a ball in flight handled by an outfielder or an infielder running in the outfield in fair o ...

*CINT is the number of

catcher's interference In baseball, interference occurs in situations in which a person illegally changes the course of play from what is expected. Interference might be committed by players on the offense, players not currently in the game, catchers, umpires, or spec ...

For example, if a pitcher faced 125 batters and allowed 25 hits, issued 8 walks, hit 1 batsman, allowed 2 sacrifice hits, allowed 3 sacrifice flies, and had 1 instance of catcher's interference, the pitcher's BAA would be calculated as:

BAA = \frac = \frac = .227

Reference site Baseball-Reference.com more simply defines BAA as hits divided by

s, as "at bats" for a pitcher equates to the above noted denominator (batters faced less walks, hit by pitch, sacrifice hits, sacrifice flies, and catcher's interference):

BAA = \frac

For example, in 2021,

Max Scherzer Maxwell Martin Scherzer (born July 27, 1984) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, and L ...

had the best (lowest) batting average against in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

among qualified pitchers. Scherzer's BAA for the 2021 season was:

BAA = \frac = \frac = .185

Notes

References

External links

OBA Calculator
at captaincalculator.com Pitching statistics {{baseball-stub

Definition

See also

Notes

References

External links