Baseball is a game of many statistics. Understanding the statistics and abbreviations for them, can make watching the game more enjoyable. We won't go over every possible statistic on this page, but will cover the major stats that are used often by announcers and players.
Batting Statistics
BA - Batting Average
The batting average is the percent that a player gets a hit per at bat. It is usually written with a decimal point in front, like .300 for a player who has a hit 30% of the time. It is usually said without the decimal point and in the hundreds. For example, .300 would be said "three hundred". A batting average of .300 or higher is considered very good in the Major Leagues. For the batting average, it doesn't matter if a hit is a single or a home run, it still just counts as a single hit.
The record for the highest career batting average is held by Ty Cobb with a .367 career batting average.
RBI - Runs Batted In
This is the total runs that a player has driven in. Any time a player makes a hit and another player scores as a result, this counts as an RBI. Sometimes a player can get an RBI while still scoring an out as in a sacrifice fly.
The record for the most career RBIs is held by Hank Aaron with 2,297. An RBI is sometimes called a Ribby.
Slugging Percentage
Slugging percentage is used to gauge the power of a hitter. It adds in the number of bases gained by hits rather than just hits like the batting average. To figure out the slugging percentage you give 1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple, and 4 for a home run. You total up the number of bases and divide them by the number of at bats.
Example:
If you had 75 singles, 5 doubles, 5 triples, and 15 home runs in 300 at bats your slugging percentage would be:
Triple Crown - The triple crown is when one player leads the league in home runs, batting average, and RBIs.
Pitching Statistics
ERA - Earned Run Average
One of the best measures for how well a pitcher is performing is the Earned Run Average or ERA. The ERA is the total number of runs scored on a pitcher for every 9 innings pitched. You can figure out the ERA by taking the total number of earned runs dividing that by the total number of innings pitched and multiplying by 9.
Some runs are not "earned runs". If a run scores due to an error, then it does not count as an earned run. The official scorer has to determine which runs should count as earned runs. Runs earned after an error may not count as the inning would have been over if the error had not occurred. Fielding errors by the pitcher are counted as normal errors and the run should not count as earned.
W-L - Wins and Losses
Many times pitchers are graded by their win/loss record. A pitcher is credited with a win if they were pitching when the team took the lead and went on to win the game. Starting pitchers must pitch at least 5 innings to get credit for a win.
SV - Save
When a pitcher enters the game and his/her team is in the lead, if they keep the lead until the end of the game, they can earn a save. One of the following three requirements is also needed to earn a save:
When the pitcher entered the game the lead must be three runs or less
The potential tying run is either on base, at bat, or on deck.
