An Update on the Average Major League Hitter

This is the promised update to my table of pretty good averages for everyday baseball players at the major league level. As before, I consider an everyday ball player to be one who was eligible for a league batting title in a given year, which from 1996-2010 means that he made at least 502 plate appearances in a given year.

The raw data for this study was taken from the mySQL database thoughtfully provided by the folks at Baseball-DataBank.org. As outlined in yesterday's post, I used mySQL to pull out the appropriate data, this time using the command:

select b.yearID as Year, m.nameLast as Last, m.nameFirst as First,
b.teamID as TEAM, b.G, b.AB+b.BB+b.HBP+b.SH+b.SF as PA, b.AB, b.R, b.H, b.2B,
b.3B, b.HR, b.RBI, b.SB, b.CS, b.BB, b.SO, b.IBB, b.HBP, b.SH, b.SF, b.GIDP
from Batting b inner join Master m
where b.playerID=m.playerID and b.yearID>1995 and
b.AB+b.BB+b.HBP+b.SH+b.SF > 502
order by b.yearID ASC, m.nameLast, m.nameFirst;

to get a list of all players from 1996 on who were eligible for a batting title. I then used mysql-query-browser to export all of the data into a spreadsheet, and there computed all of the averages and standard deviations. All the calculations are the same as in my original post, except:

• I added the batting data for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
• My original post fraked up David Smyth's Base Runs statistic. I used the right formula (the second one on the page), but miscalculated total bases by forgetting that doubles, triples, and home runs are already counted as hits. So the numbers found in my earlier study are too high.
• I dropped 1995 from the study this time because only 144 games were scheduled for each team, so the batting eligibility criterion was 144 × 3.1 = 447 plate appearances. Just lazy.

Here's how it works. For, say, Batting Average in 1996, I computed the batting average for each of the 137 players eligible for batting awards that year. I then computed the average of that average, which is the entry in the BA column for 1996. I also computed the standard deviation of those averages for the year, and put that number in the σ column. I did this for each year and each statistic listed. Finally, I found the average of all the batting averages over the 2168 player-years, and put that under All Years, along with its standard deviation. So, to use another example, we can see that from 1996-2010 the average everyday major league batter hit someplace between 11 and 31 home runs in a year. Obviously there were some notable (and ignoble) players who hit more than that, and many who hit less. But in general, if you can hit 20 home runs in a year off big-league pitching, this table tells you that you've probably got a job. I hear it pays pretty well.

The first table lists the traditional stats: Batting Average, Home Runs, and Runs Batted In (RBI).

Year	Players Eligible	Games		Batting Average		Home Runs		Runs Batted In
		Avg.	σ	BA	σ	HR	σ	RBI	σ
1996	137	147.336	10.285	0.288	0.027	21.358	12.814	84.993	29.394
1997	133	147.286	9.864	0.283	0.029	19.970	11.331	80.962	26.357
1998	148	148.574	10.217	0.287	0.026	20.926	13.012	82.500	28.442
1999	152	145.875	11.647	0.290	0.026	22.020	12.613	85.401	28.495
2000	150	146.553	10.817	0.288	0.030	22.007	11.733	85.700	27.728
2001	146	147.034	10.800	0.282	0.028	21.623	13.400	81.890	29.106
2002	144	147.417	9.630	0.278	0.027	20.750	11.188	78.819	24.090
2003	146	146.610	11.739	0.281	0.027	19.863	11.056	78.863	24.173
2004	154	145.877	10.302	0.284	0.026	20.786	11.012	79.117	23.576
2005	143	147.441	10.615	0.280	0.022	19.965	10.937	78.042	23.308
2006	146	147.116	10.302	0.286	0.024	20.459	12.181	80.952	25.700
2007	156	146.686	10.568	0.283	0.028	19.128	9.921	79.763	23.370
2008	137	146.657	10.834	0.280	0.025	19.620	9.758	78.029	22.900
2009	140	145.821	11.482	0.282	0.026	19.929	10.809	78.129	22.584
2010	136	147.213	10.235	0.274	0.027	18.728	10.276	75.125	22.502
All Years	2168	146.890	10.635	0.283	0.027	20.491	11.531	80.595	25.671

The next table has the modern statistics: On Base Percentage (OBP), Slugging Average (SLG), and what's now a standard statistic for overall batting prowess, On Base Plus Slugging (OPS = OBP + SLG). Looks like if you can keep your OPS above about 0.750 won't have to worry about the kid's college tuition:

Year	Players Eligible	On Base %		Slugging		OPB + SLG
		OBP	σ	SLG	σ	OPS	σ
1996	137	0.361	0.041	0.472	0.085	0.833	0.117
1997	133	0.354	0.041	0.460	0.075	0.815	0.108
1998	148	0.355	0.036	0.467	0.081	0.822	0.108
1999	152	0.364	0.039	0.479	0.077	0.843	0.107
2000	150	0.362	0.041	0.479	0.085	0.841	0.119
2001	146	0.353	0.040	0.470	0.092	0.823	0.127
2002	144	0.351	0.044	0.461	0.080	0.812	0.118
2003	146	0.351	0.039	0.461	0.075	0.812	0.108
2004	154	0.355	0.039	0.468	0.073	0.822	0.104
2005	143	0.348	0.034	0.458	0.069	0.806	0.095
2006	146	0.355	0.035	0.469	0.073	0.824	0.100
2007	156	0.354	0.036	0.458	0.066	0.812	0.095
2008	137	0.350	0.033	0.457	0.065	0.807	0.089
2009	140	0.353	0.032	0.461	0.066	0.814	0.090
2010	136	0.343	0.032	0.444	0.070	0.787	0.095
All Years	2168	0.354	0.038	0.464	0.076	0.819	0.106

And finally, this table has two other batting ability figures of merit. Bill Jame's Runs Created, using the technical version and David Smyth's Base Runs, using the version that includes stolen base and grounded into double play data. For each of these I also included a per Game category, where a batter is considered to have played a game every time he makes twenty-four (24) outs. Outs are defined as

Outs = At Bats - Hits + Caught Stealing + Sacrifice Hits + Sacrifice Flies + Times Grounded into Double Plays

even though Smyth's formula does not include Sacrifice data.

Year	Players Eligible	Runs Created		Runs Created/Game		Base Runs		Base Runs/Game
		RC	σ	RC/G	σ	BsR	σ	BsR/G	σ
1996	137	96.600	28.370	5.617	1.738	89.402	24.627	5.195	1.494
1997	133	91.108	26.341	5.330	1.624	84.905	22.644	4.962	1.385
1998	148	94.738	26.595	5.431	1.576	88.110	23.177	5.048	1.354
1999	152	97.993	26.840	5.749	1.619	91.017	23.332	5.337	1.389
2000	150	97.624	30.106	5.740	1.905	90.290	25.426	5.302	1.596
2001	146	93.714	32.514	5.468	2.006	86.611	27.214	5.048	1.656
2002	144	90.261	27.370	5.294	1.970	84.007	23.490	4.920	1.672
2003	146	90.263	26.200	5.291	1.663	83.832	22.653	4.908	1.406
2004	154	92.899	25.243	5.440	1.805	86.339	21.569	5.050	1.521
2005	143	89.551	23.903	5.160	1.389	83.377	20.729	4.803	1.198
2006	146	93.534	24.146	5.420	1.446	86.664	20.849	5.018	1.231
2007	156	91.098	24.147	5.292	1.387	84.725	20.931	4.920	1.191
2008	137	89.927	21.584	5.197	1.315	83.891	18.794	4.846	1.133
2009	140	90.753	22.379	5.299	1.308	84.578	19.630	4.935	1.131
2010	136	85.296	21.911	4.894	1.296	79.946	19.000	4.584	1.114
All Years	2168	92.424	26.167	5.379	1.632	85.902	22.523	4.996	1.387

So there you have it. From now on, if someone says that a player has an OBP/SLG/OPS of 0.350/0.425/0.775, or some other string of statistics, you can use these tables to see how that fits in with the average (i.e. really, really good, compared to you or me) every-day Major League batter.