Identification

• Batting average is a statistic that measures how often a hitter successfully hits the ball. It is a measurement of the number of hits a player has over the total number of times he is at bat.
  
  

Calculation

• The calculation of batting average is quite simple. Divide the number of hits by the number of at bats to get the batting average. Batting average will be a decimal such as .3, but is always rounded or displayed to three digits (.300). Mathematically speaking, the best batting average possible is 1.000, which equates to a hit for every at bat. In practice, the only time anyone has such a high batting average is during a very short period like the first game or two.
  
  

Significance

• Since batting average is a measurement of the percentage of hits a player gets, it is an indicating factor in how good a batter is and how successful he is at the plate. In Major League Baseball, hitters generally hit between .200 to .400 for the season. Batting below .200 or in the low .200s can be considered a quick ticket back to the minors. An average of .300 or more is very good and those with averages in the mid- to upper .300s are the best hitters in the league and will be in a race for the batting title. An official season batting average of more than .400 is a rare feat last accomplished by Ted Williams in 1941.
  
  

Hits

• For those new to the sport of baseball, determining a hit can be slightly misleading in certain situations. If a player hits the ball resulting in a runner being tagged out at second or third, it is not a hit even if the hitter is safe at first. This is referred to as a fielder's choice; since the hitter would have been thrown out if there were no runners on base, he is not credited with a hit. Alternately, if a hitter gets on base because a fielder commits an error on a ball that should have been played for an out, the hitter is not credited with a hit. The call of hit vs. error is one that is made by the official scorers of the game and can be controversial. Either way, a player's batting average will be lowered in these situations.
  
  

At Bats

• At bats can also be slightly confusing in certain situations. For the purpose of calculating batting average, walks, getting hit by pitch and sacrifices are not counted as at bats. If you watch a game in which a player walks all four times he's at the plate, he'll have zero official at bats. This is a reflection of the fact that batting average only credits hits, so walks and sacrifices would actually lower batting average if they were counted as at bats -- in the example above, the hitter's batting average for that day would be .000 (0 for 4). However, since these are positive contributions to the team, they are not detrimental to a player's statistics.
  
  

Other Statistics

• While batting average is the most familiar hitting statistic, it is not the only way to judge a hitter and can be unfairly construed. For instance, power hitters often have more strikeouts and modest batting averages, but contribute by hitting a lot of extra base hits, which are more effective in scoring runs. For power hitters, slugging percentage, which factors in the number of bases achieved by each hit, rather than treating each hit the same, is a better indication of how successful the hitter is. On base percentage is another important statistic, measuring how often a hitter is able to get on base, not just by hitting but also by walking and getting hit by pitches.
  
  

Batting Title

• Batting average is used as the sole determinant of the batting title each season in the MLB. The batting title is awarded each year to the player with the highest batting average in both the American and National leagues. Players must have a certain number of plate appearances to qualify (currently 3.1 per game played, 502 per season). A player can earn a triple crown by leading the league not only in batting average but also in runs batted in and home runs.