Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2023 July 10

= July 10 =

three batting averages

 * Bresnahan had been expecting to be purged from the team sooner than later. He was, after all, hitting a hilarious .154/.287/.183 for the season.

I don't follow sports, but am acquainted with the concept of a batting average. Now what does this triplet mean? —Tamfang (talk) 02:29, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Somebody's making some assumptions about their readers. Based on this, it looks like the .154 was the actual batting average, .287 was on-base average, and .183 was slugging average. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:31, 10 July 2023 (UTC)


 * For a moment, I thought this was about Batting average (cricket) (which article says that the world record is 99.94 from 1948). Alansplodge (talk) 14:38, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Ratio of runs scored to number of times put out, right? Early baseball box scores likewise listed two stats for each player: number of runs scored and number of times put out. That 99.94 for Bradman is an amazing figure, especially being almost 30 points higher than second place. Presumably 99.94 would indicate that in an average match, he scored nearly 100 runs before being put out. Not too shabby! ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:55, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
 * It's the average number of runs scored in each innings (which would work out the same, but less maths). Each team bats twice in first-class cricket. So yes, on average he scored a century every time he went in to bat. Alansplodge (talk) 15:19, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Oops, yes. Obviously it wouldn't likely work out the same in a limited-overs type of match. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:37, 11 July 2023 (UTC)


 * If there's a fourth measure in there, it's the OPS, which is the on-base percentage plus slugging. It's seen as a handy quick calculation of a batter's success. In this case, it would have read as .154/.287/.183 /.470. Matt Deres (talk) 16:52, 11 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes. These numbers don't mean anything in isolation per batter, but only relative to other batters. It's no surprise that the all-time leader in on-base is Ted Williams with Babe Ruth in second; the all-time leader in slugging is Ruth with Williams second; and the two all-time leaders in OPS are Ruth and Williams. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:37, 11 July 2023 (UTC)