According to the Baseball Almanac, batting average is the most common and best understood statistic in baseball. It's also one of the easiest--a simple ratio of hits made to the number of attempts. Note that while the batting average represents a percentage (multiply it by 100 to put the number in percent form) it's usually read off as if the decimal weren't there. The higher a player's batting average, the better; while a perfect batting average of 1.00 is theoretically possible, a "300 hitter," or a player with a .300 batting average, is considered quite good.
Step 1
Add up the number of hits the player has during a given time period. For example, in 2009, Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals had 186 hits.
Step 2
Count the number of at-bats the player had during the same time period. To continue our example, Albert Pujols' 186 hits came in 568 at bats throughout the 2009 season.
Step 3
Divide the number of hits by the number of times at bat and round to three figures if necessary. The resulting number is the hitter's batting average. To conclude our example for Albert Pujols, his 186 hits divided by 568 at bats yields a batting average of .327.
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