OBP higher than SLG

Mighty Bombjack said:

It's no secret that Todd Helton, perhaps my favorite player of alltime, has seen his production fall off this year (more so than in in '08). Most interesting has been the fact that, for the last few weeks (month?), his stat line has seemed strange to me in that his OBP has been higher than his SLG. His current line of % stats:

.255/.347/.342

His HR tonight moved the two closer, as they have been furthr apart in the past. This is a sure sign of a good batting eye losing power. I'm sure there are others currently in the MLB like this, but I'm just so used to seeing the numbers go from low->high that this looks weird to me.

Just sayin.

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leatherman said:

You think that's crazy? Here are ten players that ended up with a higher BATTING AVERAGE than their ON BASE PERCENTAGE: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play- ... reit/HjEVz

If you are wondering how that happens, it's because Sacrifice Flies are used in calculating OBP, so if a batter has almost no walks or HBP, but at least one sac fly, it can happen. Actually, the only player in MLB history to have a higher BA than OBP, and have either a walk or a HBP in the same season, was Jerry Martin in 1983. In 48 plate appearances, he had one walk and three sac flies. He was 14-44 in his other PAs, giving him a BA of .318 and an OBP of .313.

Dante Bichette holds the record for largest difference between BA and OBP (minimum of 30 PAs). In 1988, he batted .261 but had an OBP of .240 (in 50 plate appearances). He had no walks, no HBP, but 4 sac flies.

One last thing...sacrifice HITS (i.e. bunts) and not included in the OBP calculation, just sac flies. Here is the formula for calculating OBP:

OBP = (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+HBP+SF)


David

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leatherman said:

You think that's crazy? Here are ten players that ended up with a higher BATTING AVERAGE than their ON BASE PERCENTAGE: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play- ... reit/HjEVz

If you are wondering how that happens, it's because Sacrifice Flies are used in calculating OBP, so if a batter has almost no walks or HBP, but at least one sac fly, it can happen. Actually, the only player in MLB history to have a higher BA than OBP, and have either a walk or a HBP in the same season, was Jerry Martin in 1983. In 48 plate appearances, he had one walk and three sac flies. He was 14-44 in his other PAs, giving him a BA of .318 and an OBP of .313.

Dante Bichette holds the record for largest difference between BA and OBP (minimum of 30 PAs). In 1988, he batted .261 but had an OBP of .240 (in 50 plate appearances). He had no walks, no HBP, but 4 sac flies.

One last thing...sacrifice HITS (i.e. bunts) and not included in the OBP calculation, just sac flies. Here is the formula for calculating OBP:

OBP = (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+HBP+SF)


David

Click to expand...