Batting average (AVG) is the classic baseball measure of a hitter: hits divided by at-bats. Walks, hit-by-pitches and sacrifice bunts are excluded from at-bats, so they never lower the average.
Enter the number of hits and at-bats to get the batting average to three decimal places.
Batting average ignores the kind of hit, so a single and a home run count exactly the same. That is why .300 works as shorthand but ranks hitters poorly: two players can both hit .300 while one adds 40 home runs and the other adds five. Modern evaluation therefore reads AVG together with OBP and SLG.
AVG = Hits / At-batsIn Major League Baseball, .250 is roughly average, .280 is good and .300 or better is excellent. The last .400 season was Ted Williams in 1941, which shows how rare that level is.
A walk is not the result of a batted ball in play, so by rule it is not an at-bat even though it is a plate appearance. On-base percentage does include walks, which is why the two stats often diverge.
No. A sacrifice bunt is neither an at-bat nor a hit, so the average is unchanged. It does add a plate appearance, which lowers OBP, so the same play is neutral for AVG and slightly negative for OBP.
About 200 at-bats is the point where the number starts to stabilise, and 400 to 500 makes it reliable. Over 50 at-bats a true .300 hitter can easily look like a .220 hitter purely through luck.
2026-10-19