Baseball Stats Abbreviations
Please explain Baseball rules, meanings, abbreviations to me?
Australian television has recently begun showing Major League Baseball on free-to-air- tv. I’ve never been a big sports nut and had very little exposure to baseball but have found myself glued to the games for hours on end.
Whilst I’m really enjoying the sport, I think I would get a lot more out of it if I really understood the game. I’ve got the basics (innings, strikes, balls, walks, batting and pitching) but I’m getting confused with different stats, abbreviations and rules.
Also, as a newbie to the sport (as well as an Aussie) I don’t have any affiliation or draw to any particular team so who do you support and why?
Well, we all understand why you love this game. It’s great — especially when you know the whole game.
Firstly, I’d reccomend a book. There’s too much to explain here. Two books that are very informative are Watching Baseball Smarter by Zack Hample and Baseball for Dummies by Joe Morgan & others.
Basically, since your request is very broad, I can give you the abbreviations.
AVG: Batting Average (average at-bats in which a player gets a hit. Anything above .295 is considered good. Above .315 is near the top of the league. There hasn’t been a .400 batter since 1941, and it doesn’t look like there will be soon. Anything under .270 is considered poor. Under .200 is something called the “Mendoza line” — which nobody wants to come near.
HR: Homeruns (usually every starter in the MLB will have a few homeruns. The league leader usually has around 45, and usually the players near the top of the league have 30-40. Between 25-30 is good, 18-24 is above-average, 10-17 is average, below ten is below average. First basemen usually have the most homeruns, while catchers, second basemen, and shortstop usually have the least.
SB: Stolen Bases (if you have less than three a season, you’re slow. Usually between 5-10 is considered average speed, 10-15 is decent speed, 15-25 is above-average, 25-35 is good, 35+ is very good. Over 45 is near the top of the league. The league leader usually has about 55-65.
RBI: Runs batted in
R: Runs scored
2B: Doubles
3B: triples
CS: Caught stealing
H: hits
BB: base on balls (walk)
K or SO: strikeout
OBP: On-base percentage
GIDP: Grounded into Double Play
HBP: hit by pitch
SLG: Slugging
OPS: On-base plus slugging
TB: Total Bases
AB: At-bat
PA: Plate Appearence
FIELDING
E: Errors
FP: Fielding Percentage (lower standards for shortstops, third baseman, and second basemen)
PITCHING
W: Wins
SO: shutouts
K: Strikeouts
ERA: Earned Run average
WHIP: Walks + hits per inning
BB: Base on balls allowed
WP: Wild Pitches
CG: complete games
GS: Games started
G: games pitched
S: Saves
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Personally, I’m a Red Sox fan. I can’t tell you why I am, I just became one in 2003. But for one thing, I will never be a fan of anybody else more than them. I think you just have to watch baseball and/or read up about some teams online, and then over time you’ll just start rooting for a team and they’ll end up being your favorite.
ESPN (One True Media)
Filed under Uncategorized by on May 24th, 2007. Comment. 
