Batting Average (BA): 1903-2020 percent above league >= 20% and AB >= 370. Friday, January 21, 2022
Ted Williams had a slightly higher percent above the league BA with his .388 in 1957 than with his .406 in 1941.
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Should Sacrifice Flies (SF) be in the Home Run rate: (AB+SF)/HR? Saturday, December 18, 2021
Sacrifice Flies (SF) is a stupid scoring rule that has come and gone over the years and even been included in sacrifice bunts, which are called Sacrifice Hits (SH) for some reason. Rather than encouraging sacrifice, it encourages swinging for the fences regardless of whether that's best for the team. And game score and inning are not considered.
https://www.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/sacrifice-fly
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The same concept applies to Batting Average (BA): Hits/AB.
In 1941 if a batter had what now would be considered a Sacrifice Fly (SF) it would be an out that counted in his At Bats (AB). Today it would not count in his AB. Obviously, that can change the BA. I think someone in SABR figured out how many SF Ted Williams would have had in 1941 and subtracted them from his AB and determined that with the current SF rule Williams 1941 BA would have been about .410.
Note: 1/26/2022 See the comment below from Vinnie indicating that Williams 1941 BA would have been .413 with the SF rule.
But to figure out Williams 1941 percent above league BA with SF, we would also need the number of SF for the entire American League (AL), which we are unlikely to ever know.
So, how to compare Ted Williams two highest BA, which are also his two highest percent above league BA? We can change the 1957 data to add SF to AB for both Williams and the AL. Then recompute his 1957 percent above league BA and compare it to his 1941.
In 1957 Ted Williams has two SF. The AL had 337. Both seem pretty low and inconsequential but you never know.
The first set of data is how it was computed straight up: no SF in 1941, SF in 1957. Then 1957 is shown with SF added to AB for both Williams and the AL and his percent above league BA recomputed.
Surprisingly Williams 1957 percent above league BA increases. Proportionately the AL was impacted more than Williams.
It's a small point but emphasises how absurd it is to change scoring and qualifying rules and, especially, to not normalize the data to a consistent set of data rather than stick with the rules at the time.
Batting Average ("Leading the league in hitting."): minimum requirements for averages. Those requirements have changed a lot since early in the previous century. Monday, December 27, 2021
You can't make up stuff like this. And remember, Plate Appearances (PA) is not the denominator in Batting Average (BA): Hits/AB. Nor in SLG; it's AB there, too. PA is the denominator in On Base Percentage (OBP), which is an average, not a percent. Sit down before you start reading this.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/about/leader_glossary.shtml#min_req
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2 comments:
John Thorn identified 8 sac flies that were counted as at bats.
https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-strange-story-of-the-sacrifice-fly-5107628ed7ed
Thank you, Vinnie. John Thorn has Ted Williams 1941 BA at .413 with SF subtracted from AB.
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