Difference between batting average and slugging percentage?

Question

I've been a big fan of baseball since 1986, and I am still confused to the difference between a batter's batting average and slugging percentage. What's the difference? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (abbreviated SLG) is a popular measure of the power of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats:

SLG = ((1B) + (2 x 2B) + (3 x 3B) + (4 x HR)) All divided by at bats.

where AB is the number of at-bats for a given player, and 1B, 2B, 3B, and HR are the number of singles, doubles, triples, and home runs, respectively. Walks are specifically excluded from this calculation.

Batting Average (BA) is defined as simply the ratio of hits to at bats.

Answer 2

A batting average of 1 hit out of 2 at bats would be .500, even if BOTH these hits were triples, and the same if they were just singles.  Slugging takes into account the kind of hit it was.

Answer 3

Slugging takes into account multiple-base hits.

Answer 4

Batting average is the total number of hits divided by the total number of At Bats.

Slugging percentage is the number of total bases (singles-1, doubles-2, triples-3, home runs-4) divided by the total number of At Bats.

Slugging percentage is more of the traditional indicator of power, but there is a newer stat called Isolated Power (slugging minus batting average) that measures power even more precisely.

Answer 5

Batting average is only about hits to at-bats. Slugging percentage is like that, but the different hits earn different points. Singles are one point, doubles-2, triples-3, and homeruns-4. The points are added and then divided by at-bats.

Answer 6

Batting average considers all hits to be equal, and we know that is not the case. Slugging average makes a decent attempt to correct for this, by giving extra-base hits more appropriate weighting.

AVG == H / AB

SLG == TB / AB

TB (total bases) == singles + 2*doubles + 3*triples + 4*homers

or, since singles data isn't typically readily available, we can use

TB == hits + doubles + 2*triples + 3*homers

since it's the same thing.