Batting Ratings

Batting Ratings ratings help determine a batter's offensive skills and performance when they come up to bat or take a lead at first base.

Discipline (DI)

  • Discipline reflects a batter's ability to recognize balls and strikes and be patient in choosing which pitches to swing at.
  • A higher DI means more walks and fewer strikeouts, potentially increasing the on-base percentage.
  • It also affects the likelihood of getting hit by a pitch.

Famous players with high Discipline: Rickey Henderson, Joe Morgan

Contact (CN)

  • Contact reflects how well the batter can make contact when he decides to swing.
  • Contact can have the opposite effect of Discipline - dramatically lowering a player's strikeout chances, and slightly affecting their walk chances.
  • Contact has a very small effect on their ability to get a single or double (sometimes just making contact is enough), and has a slight effect on the Ground Ball/Fly Ball ratio (high contact batters will keep the ball down a little better).
  • A batter with high CN improves their batting average and on-base percentage. However, more balls in play also mean a higher chance of grounding into double plays.

Famous players with high Contact: Tony Gwynn, Robin Yount, and Joe DiMaggio

Batting (BA)

  • Batting indicates a batter's ability to hit for average.
  • It strongly influences the number of singles and doubles and has a slight effect on triples and home runs.
  • Batting also slightly affects walks and strikeouts, but not as significantly as DI and CN.
  • GB/FB ratio is also affected by this - again, presuming that when a player hits for average they tend to keep the ball down a little better.
  • A batter with a high BA significantly improves their batting average and on-base percentage. (Note that the increase in OBP is primarily due to the increase in batting average.)

Famous players with high Batting: Wade Boggs, Ted Williams

Slugging (SL)

  • Slugging reflects a batter's power hitting ability.
  • SL is crucial for hitting home runs as it converts singles into extra-base hits without significantly impacting the batting average.
  • A higher SL often leads to more walks since pitchers try to avoid power hitters.
  • However, power hitters also tend to have more strikeouts due to their focus on hitting for power. *High SL players often have a low ground ball/fly ball ratio.

Famous players with high Slugging: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron

Speed (SP)

  • Speed reflects a player's running ability on the bases, including their raw speed and baserunning instincts.
  • Aside from the obvious influence on stolen bases, speed also impacts taking extra bases, tagging up, and breaking up double plays.
  • The average player will attempt to steal approximately every 1 in 16 chances.
  • A player with SP=100 will steal about 1 in 2 chances.

Famous players with high Speed: Lou Brock, Willie Mays

Related Links

Pitching Ratings
Fielding Ratings
Other Ratings