How Important are Quality at-Bats? Quality at-bats are a critical aspect of any MLB team. Sometimes having a QAB might not show up in the box score or highlight reel, but it can be a game-changer in the outcome.
In baseball, QAB stands for “Quality At-Bat”. QAB has a broad definition and it is not a reported statistic in baseball, but it is a well-known concept that can be used to judge how well a hitter performed during their plate appearance by looking at how the at-bat helped the team.
Your target should be 60 percent quality at bats, with at least 40 percent coming from hard hit balls. Sure, these numbers are hard to achieve, but most players will be at 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively. Remember, quality at bats leads to lots of hits. This summer, don’t get caught up in your batting average.
“Ground ball pitchers” generally have grounder rates over 50%, while “fly ball pitchers” have fly ball rates above (or approaching) 40%.
BABIP measures a player’s batting average exclusively on balls hit into the field of play, removing outcomes not affected by the opposing defense (namely home runs and strikeouts). For example, a hitter who goes 2-for-5 with a home run and a strikeout would have a . 333 BABIP. He’s 1-for-3 on the balls he put in play.
Definition. Statcast defines a ‘hard-hit ball’ as one hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher, and a player’s “hard-hit rate” is simply showing the percentage of batted balls that were hit at 95 mph or more.
It is estimated that the jump from 57% first-pitch strikes to 80% would result in 10 more wins by a Major League Baseball team. 10 extra wins can make the difference between having home field advantage in the playoffs or not even having a playoff spot at all.
The Answer: A simple way to compute a player’s batting average is to divide the player’s total hits (not the number of bases) by his/her total at bats. A walk does not count as an at bat or hit, and does not affect a player’s batting average.
Single-Season Leaders & Records for Batting Average
Rank | Player (age that year) | Batting Average |
---|---|---|
1. | Tetelo Vargas (37) | .4711 |
2. | Josh Gibson+ (31) | .4659 |
3. | Charlie Smith (27) | .4512 |
4. | Hugh Duffy+ (27) | .4397 |
The “L10” column depicts each team’s win-loss record for the past 10 games, with the number of wins represented first. “STRK” stands for “streak,” and shows each team’s current win or loss streak, with “W” indicating wins and “L” indicating losses.
The pop fly is one of the more common hits in baseball.Height of a Pop Fly.
Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) | Standardized Result |
---|---|---|
Israel, Robert. Pop Flies: The Sequel. University of British Columbia, 1998. | “The initial velocity turns out to be 39.7 m/s and the maximum height 59.3 m” | 59.3 m |
The “Olympic Rings” or platinum sombrero applies to a player striking out five times in a game. A horn refers to a player striking out six times in a game; the term was coined by pitcher Mike Flanagan after teammate Sam Horn of the Baltimore Orioles accomplished the feat in an extra-inning game in 1991.
The best possible score a player can have for an on-base percentage is 1.000 – this indicates a player gets on base 100% of the time he comes to the plate for a plate appearance (PA). No one does this – a good OBP is somewhere over .
A five-strikeout inning has never happened in the majors. Multiple pitchers have struck out four in one inning, including earlier this season when Los Angeles Angels pitcher Luke Bard did it in the 14th inning against the New York Yankees.
K/9 rate measures how many strikeouts a pitcher averages for every nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing his strikeout total by his innings pitched total and multiplying the result by nine.
Relief Points (Pts) Wins plus saves minus losses. Run Support Per 9 IP. The number of runs scored by a pitcher’s team while he was still in the game times nine divided by his Innings Pitched.
F means Final, indicating the game is complete.
In baseball, a utility player is a player who typically does not have the offensive abilities to justify a regular starting role on the team but is capable of playing more than one defensive position.
A huge part of determining a pitcher’s true skill level, though, begins with the basic walk and strikeout rates. A great place to begin with pitchers is to look at their K-BB%. This is the strikeout percentage (rather than K/9) minus their walk percentage. The higher that number, the better.
The 3-0 Count Unwritten Rule
What is the 3-0 unwritten rule in baseball? The 3-0 count unwritten rule states that batters should not swing on a 3-0 pitch when it is late in the game and the batter’s team is up by a lot of runs.
NL Leaders: % Swung at 1st Pitch
Rank | Name | Team |
---|---|---|
1 | Brendan Donovan | StL |
2 | Daniel Vogelbach | NYM |
3 | Seiya Suzuki | ChC |
4 | Jesús Aguilar | Mia |
TS: Total strikes. S%: Strike percentage. K/G: Strikeouts per regulation game. K/BB: Strikeouts per walk.