What Is Batting Average in Baseball?

Batting average (AVG) is a hitter’s hits divided by their at-bats — the share of at-bats that end in a hit. It is the most famous number in baseball, but it deliberately leaves out walks and treats every hit the same, so it tells you less than it seems to. The value comes from reading it next to the stats around it.

How batting average is calculated

AVG = Hits ÷ At-Bats

Divide hits by official at-bats and read it as a three-decimal number. Example: 30 hits in 100 at-bats is 30 ÷ 100 = .300 (“three hundred”). The key subtlety is the denominator: walks, hit-by-pitches, and sacrifice flies or bunts are not at-bats, so none of them ever touch the average — a fact that turns out to matter a lot.

What batting average leaves out

Batting average has two well-known blind spots. First, it ignores walks. A hitter with 150 hits and no walks in 450 at-bats bats .333 and has a .333 on-base percentage; a hitter with 150 hits plus 50 walks bats the same .333 but gets on base at .400. Same average, very different hitters. Second, it treats every hit equally — a single counts the same as a home run, even though extra-base hits produce far more runs. That is why FanGraphs, in its case against the stat, concludes batting average “tells you much less than OBP, OPS, wOBA, or wRC+” (per FanGraphs, “Stats to Avoid: Batting Average”).

What is a good batting average?

As a rough professional reference, using traditional major-league benchmarks:

Batting average	Rating
.300 and up	Strong offensive season (MLB)
.270 – .299	Above average (MLB)
~.250	Around league average (MLB, recent seasons)
.220 – .249	Below average (MLB)
.200 and below	Low end for a regular — the "Mendoza line" (MLB)

These are professional reference points, not youth benchmarks. A very high average is a strong sign a hitter is producing and a very low one is a warning sign — but between those extremes, average alone is a thin signal. Read it with on-base and slugging before drawing a conclusion.

Batting average in youth & travel baseball

Youth batting average is noisier than the pro version. Any one hitter gets a small number of at-bats across a season, so a couple of bloop hits or hard-hit outs move the number more than they should, and the hit-or-error call on a ground ball is a scorer’s judgment that youth games produce far more often. There is no credible, age-appropriate benchmark table we would publish as a youth “good average” — so we don’t invent one. Instead, treat youth average as directional and read it inside the fuller picture: a hitter batting .250 who walks a lot and hits the ball hard may be helping the offense more than a .320 hitter who never reaches base another way. That comparison is the whole point.

How GameLense reads batting average

GameLense pulls hitting data from GameChanger and computes average the correct way — from aggregated season totals (total hits and total at-bats) rather than averaging single-game averages, which would give the wrong answer. But the number on its own is only one signal. GameLense reads it alongside on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS in the same season view, so a hitter’s average is always in context rather than standing alone. One number can mislead; the pattern across them rarely does.

Frequently asked questions

What is batting average in baseball?

Batting average (AVG) is the number of hits a batter gets divided by their official at-bats. It is the most recognizable hitting stat in the game — the share of at-bats that end in a hit — but it deliberately excludes walks, hit-by-pitches, and sacrifices, and it counts a single the same as a home run.

How is batting average calculated?

Batting average = hits ÷ at-bats. A player with 30 hits in 100 at-bats has a .300 average. Walks, hit-by-pitches, and sacrifice flies or bunts are not at-bats, so they never appear in the calculation — which is why two hitters can share an identical average while getting on base at very different rates.

What is a good batting average?

At the major-league level, roughly .250 is around league average in recent seasons, .300 is a strong offensive season, and .200 (the "Mendoza line") marks the low end for a regular. These are professional reference points, not youth benchmarks — youth and travel numbers swing widely with age, level, and the small number of at-bats any one player gets in a season, so a young hitter is best compared within their own age group.

Why do analysts say batting average is overrated?

Because it answers a narrow question — hits per at-bat — and ignores the rest of what a hitter does. It leaves out walks entirely (a .333 hitter who never walks and a .333 hitter who walks 50 times reach base at very different rates) and treats a single like a double or home run. As FanGraphs puts it, batting average "tells you much less than OBP, OPS, wOBA, or wRC+." It is still useful context, just not the number to judge a hitter on alone.

What is the difference between batting average and on-base percentage?

Batting average counts only hits, and only over at-bats. On-base percentage (OBP) counts hits, walks, and hit-by-pitches over all plate appearances — every way a batter avoids making an out. A patient hitter can have an ordinary average but an excellent OBP, which is why OBP is the better single measure of how often a batter helps the offense.

What is the difference between batting average and slugging percentage?

Batting average treats every hit equally; slugging percentage (SLG) weights hits by total bases, so a double is worth twice a single and a home run four times as much. Reading average, OBP, and slugging together tells you how often a hitter reaches base and how much damage they do when they connect — far more than average alone.

Related baseball stats

See your hitters’ average in context

GameLense calculates batting average automatically from your GameChanger data and reads it in context alongside on-base, slugging, and OPS across your season — so one number never tells the whole story.

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