How to Calculate the Base Percentage & Batting Averages for Youth Baseball

Batting average and on-base percentage represent baseball statistics that indicate the rates at which players get hits or get on base. The batting average does not penalize a player for getting walked or sacrificing, so plate appearances with those results do not count as at-bats. The on-base percentage will typically be higher than a batting average because it treats walks and getting hit by a pitch the same as a hit. As a coach in youth baseball, knowing the batting averages and on-base percentages for your players can help you set your batting order more effectively. In addition, if a youth player has a minimal difference between batting average and on-base percentage, the player probably can be instructed to improve pitch selection because he is taking few walks.

Instructions

    • 1

      Subtract the number of walks, times hit by pitch, sacrifices, sacrifice hits and times reached on defensive interference from plate appearances to find the number of at-bats to be used to calculate the batting average. For example, if a player has 200 plate appearances, 20 walks, five times hit by pitches and three sacrifices, the player has 172 at-bats for batting-average purposes.

    • 2

      Divide the number of hits by the number of at-bats to find the batting average. In this example, if the player has 79 hits, divide 79 by 172 to get an average of .459.

    • 3

      Include the number of times the player walked, was hit by a pitch or sacrificed to find at-bats to be counted for on-base percentage calculations. In this example, add 172 plus 20 plus five plus three to get 200.

    • 4

      Add the number of walks and hit by pitches to the number of hits. In this example, add 20 plus five plus 79 to get 104.

    • 5

      Divide the sum of the hits, walks and hit by pitches by the number of plate appearances to find the on-base percentage. In this example, divide 104 by 200 to get an on-base percentage of .520.