Expert: Martin Hoover - 4/28/2007

Question
hi there again,

I don't remember if I asked this question or not, so if I repeated myself, I appologize.  What is slugging percentag? How is it calculated? And what is its purpose?

Answer
Bret,

It's okay.  I would rather you understand it.  If that means telling you again, than I will tell you again.

In baseball statistics, slugging average (abbreviated SLG) is the most 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))/ AB , 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.

For example, in 1920, Babe Ruth was playing his first season for the New York Yankees. In 458 at bats, he had 172 hits, including 73 singles, 36 doubles, 9 triples, and 54 home runs, which brings the total base count to (73 + (36 × 2) + (9 × 3) + (54 × 4)) = 388. He had 458 at bats, so his total number of bases (388) divided by his total at-bats (458) is .847, his slugging average. The next year he slugged .846, and for 80 years those records went unbroken until 2001, when Barry Bonds hit 411 bases in 476 at-bats, bringing his average to .863, unmatched since.

Hope this has helped, should you have any other questions, please let me know.

-Martin Hoover

SOURCE:
Slugging average. (2007, April 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:14, April 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slugging_average&oldid=126038010