Is a .250 batting average good?

[QuinlansMinion]

I only ask because if you look at a lot of lineups around the league especially for about half the teams in the majors, they have several players hitting below .250 and some even below .200 and these players are regular starters.

[Sciosciapath]

.230 is the new .250

[markb]

Not sure if trolling.  Are you attempting to determine a player's value on avg alone?

[The God of Runs]

it's good for Hamilton and Mathis and Iaanetta

[WallyWorld]

for a variety of reasons - new regulations against PEDs, rising crop of young power arms, etc - batting averages have gone down across MLB in the past 5 years or so.

[Mudville]

No, by itself a .250 batting average is suckatude. Now if you couple it with an OBP of .380 and a slugging percentage of .550 then what you have is an Adam Dunn type player before Adam Dunn became suckatude.

[tdawg87]

It depends. For a player like, say, Erick Aybar, a .250 AVG is terrible, because we know he is not going to hit for power or get on base via the walk. So basically you would be looking at a player with a .250/.280/.350 slash line. That's bad any way you look at it.

 

For a guy like Adam Dunn, it's fantastic, as he is going to hit a lot of homeruns and get on base a lot via the walk. Adam Dunn with a .250 AVG is basically guaranteed to have a .900+ OPS.

 

So there is really no straight answer to the question. For some hitters it is good, and for others it isn't. It all depends on what you bring on the other aspects of offense.

[fan_since79]

When you look at some of the top 15 all-time leaders in Runs Created, there are guys like Rose, Aaron, Mays, and Yaz who barely hit .300 (Yaz' career BA was .285). Of course a lifetime average of .300 is great, but that gets you only in the top 150th or so on the all-time list. A lot of these guys with the relatively lower averages were doing other things to create runs, like hitting for power and hitting in clutch situations.

[Angelsjunky]

American League triple-slash is .255/.320/.405 - so that's an average player. So .255 with a .700-.750 OPS is an average hitter. But then you have to adjust by position - those numbers are below average for LF, RF, 1B, DH, and 3B, above average for SS and C, and above average for 2B and CF.

[Inside Pitch]

American League triple-slash is .255/.320/.405 - so that's an average player. So .255 with a .700-.750 OPS is an average hitter. But then you have to adjust by position - those numbers are below average for LF, RF, 1B, DH, and 3B, above average for SS and C, and above average for 2B and CF.

 

AL

 

1B - .258/.332/.444

2B - .263/.321/.382

SS - .250/.303/.364

3B - .260/.319/.421

RF - .262/.321/.420

CF - .264/.328/.414

LF - .253/.316/.402

DH - .245/323/.408

 C - ..243/.312/.396

 

It's amazing how much offense has fallen.   DHs have dropped off dramatically....  Guess those 35 year old sluggers don't stay fresh as long as they used to.

[Brandon Wing]

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/angels-262343-lineup-hitters.html

 

Four years seems like a looong time ago.

[QuinlansMinion]

Every morning I wake up and look at the A's roster and say if this team is capable of scoring runs then I can do whatever I want in life.

[SmallSampleSize]

A-Rod has the highest BA of anyone in tonight's Yankee lineup, sample size excluded.

Plot twist: Cashman fights to support A-Rod's appeal.

[YouthofToday]

On-base percentage is far more important than batting average.

[YouthofToday]

In other words, your ability to not make an out is more important than your ability to get a base hit.

Far more obvious stated like that.

[Banned 'n Cryin']

Depends on the player.

[Ohtaniland]

AL

1B - .258/.332/.444

2B - .263/.321/.382

SS - .250/.303/.364

3B - .260/.319/.421

RF - .262/.321/.420

CF - .264/.328/.414

LF - .253/.316/.402

DH - .245/323/.408

C - ..243/.312/.396

It's amazing how much offense has fallen. DHs have dropped off dramatically.... Guess those 35 year old sluggers don't stay fresh as long as they used to.

Then there's Hamilton sitting on .220

[Troll Daddy]

In other words, your ability to not make an out is more important than your ability to get a base hit.

Far more obvious stated like that.

That's such a crock of crap... It stinks in here

[RangerGal]

250 essentially equals 1-4. If that 1 equals 300 plus with RISP I will take it everyday. Look at the A's avgs not eye popping but they get that one when it serves their needs

[RangerGal]

I think of the A's as a group of pesky a** flies that never seem to go away

[YouthofToday]

That's such a crock of crap... It stinks in here

Walks are not a false stat.

[Troll Daddy]

Walks are not a false stat.

Maybe if you took the time to understand the context in which it was said ... you might learn something.

You need to get out from under that box you live in .... Any joe blow fan can read a stat.

[Homebrewer]

The A's are freakin machines with RISP. Cardinals are too.
The key in this new era is going to be pitching, and Batting average with RISP
Not HRs and high BAs, but what you do, as a team, with RISP.

RBI's and Pitching stats...
If you can drive em in AND shut em down

What you can do with RISP might be the stat of the future...

[CaliAngel]

No, batting .250 is not good.

 

But if you're getting it done and winning games in the the clutch, who really gives a crap what their batting average is?

[YouthofToday]

Maybe if you took the time to understand the context in which it was said ... you might learn something.

You need to get out from under that box you live in .... Any joe blow fan can read a stat.

I know the context of the quote and still think Hatcher fundamentally does not believe not making outs is the key. I demonstrated this with extensive evidence prior to his firing looking at p/pa, walk rates and k rates.