How is slugging percentage determined in baseball

Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Understand slugging percentage.

This only measures number of bases from hits, not from walks or hit by pitch. Ignoring the bases out of the batter's control makes this a more accurate measure of offensive power. Find the number of singles. Most player stats don't include singles, but it's easy to figure out from other stats.

Then subtract your answer from the total number of Hits to get the number of Singles. Calculate the number of bases. Divide your answer by at bats. Divide total bases by the number of at bats to get the slugging percentage. On average, he scored a little more than one base for every two at bats. Method 2. Find the total bases with a faster method. The method above is the easiest to understand, but requires extra math to find the number of singles. This works because one base per Hit takes care of all the singles.

Since this also awards one base for each double, you only need to add 1 more base per double to find the total. Similarly, add two extra bases for triples, and three extra for home runs. Divide by at bats. Just as before, the slugging percentage is equal to the total bases divided by at bats. Method 3. Barry Bonds holds the MLB record for highest slugging percentage in a season. In baseball statistics , slugging percentage often abbreviated SLG is a measure of the power of a hitter.

It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats. The following site provides information on calculation, total bases, total official at bats, slugging, and other baseball statistics: ESPN's MLB statistics glossary.

The term slugging percentage is a misnomer , for it is actually a weighted average , not a percentage. He had at bats, so his total number of bases divided by his total at-bats is. The next year he slugged. The difference in these two statistics in this example demonstrates why BA alone does not give a complete picture of the offensive skills of any given hitter.

BA does not differentiate between a power hitting outfielder and a singles hitting utility player. That difference is significant in terms of how many runs that player can generate, which is the difference between winning and losing.

There are other stats which give a deeper and broader picture of offensive production. Those stats are for another post. My purpose here was to demonstrate that a hitter is not measured by batting average alone.

In order to understand the complex nature of major league baseball hitting, one must look beyond the surface and dig deeper, much deeper. In this series I hope to give you the tools to do that. And one more thing. The real life examples I use in this series are not meant to be a debate about the relative merits of the individual players I use.

This series is about statistics, what those statistics mean and how they can be applied. It is not about whether one player is tougher or nicer or has better facial hair. We can debate that somewhere else.

I hope you like this series and I welcome your input. Cardinals set at Second Base? Redbird Rants 5 years St. Louis Cardinals: Five things we've learned so far this spring. More MLB News ». View all MLB Sites. More AL East News ».