Baseball Offensive Statistics: Slugging Percentage & On-Base Percentage Explained

Question
QUESTION: How do you calculate Slugging %..... what does it mean.??
How do you calculate On Base %..... What does it mean..??

ANSWER: Jay,

Slugging percentage and On base percentage are important offensive statistics and help the coach place batters in the line up.  Batting average doesn't tell the whole story.

Slugging Percentage = No. of bases on hits/At bats

On base percentage = No of hits + on by error + walks/at bats + on by error + walks

For on base percentage you don't credit for getting on base if someone else gets out (Fielders Choice).

Lets use these statisics for our example. The scenario is a weekend tournament.   88 at bats, 28 hits, 3 triples, 10 doubles, 15 singles, 5 base runners on from errors, and 8 walks.

Start with the simple, Batting average  28/88= .318

Slugging percentage 44/88=.500  The 44 comes from the number bases from triples (9) + the number of bases from doubles (20) + the number of bases from singles (15).

On base percentage 41/101 = .406

My hitters with low slugging percent and high on base percent are typically my table setters the 1 and 2 hitters.  High slugging gpercentage gets the 3,4,5 spots.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Does Hit-by-pitch count in the OB% calculation..??
also, how do you calculate a pitcher's ERA..??

Answer
Going from memory, without looking it up, I would say that hit by pitch does count to OB%.  Some kids do get hit more than others for some reason.

ERA

ERA = (Earned Runs X Innings Pitched) / 7
If you can't use a full inning ERA = (Earned Runs X Outs Recorded)/21