Author: Mark

You may have recognized that OBP and SLG each measure slightly different things. OBP is only a measure of whether you got on base, while SLG makes a big fuss over your hits in particular, and how “big” they were. OPS (and even better, OPS+) are a quick summary of these combined, which is cool. However, OPS treats OBP and SLG as essentially equal in their importance, while getting on base is demonstrably of higher value. If you want a more accurate measure of offensive production that is (relatively) simple to calculate, look no further than weighted on base average, or wOBA.

BA, OBP, and SLG make up what is typically known as the triple slash line for hitting. You’ll often see something written like .275/.310/.382. That is BA, OBP, and SLG in order. However, we do like our summary statistics that reduce how many numbers we need to compare for making quick calls, so we use OPS: On Base plus Slugging.

We move on from batting average to discuss a much simpler statistic, as well as a weighted version of batting average. These two new statistics, along with batting average, have over the last decade come to comprise the base-level portfolio of a batter’s hitting abilities.

Though not the most intuitive statistic, batting average was a gold-standard statistic for many decades, and is still considered important today.

After a couple of years toying with the idea, I’ve finally decided to do a blogmas, my own take on creative challenges such as Advent of Code. In this case, you’ll be treated to 25 days of posts about the wonderful world of baseball statistics.