| What is Slugging Percentage? | | | | bunting or hitting a fly ball in order to move a |
| As the term implies, slugging percentage is | | | | runner to the next base), it is not counted as an |
| baseball's way of measuring a hitter's overall | | | | official at-bat. Everything else (anything from a |
| power and effectiveness. It's obviously much | | | | strike out to a home run) is considered an at-bat. |
| easier just to compare home run numbers or | | | | To calculate slugging percentage, divide the total |
| RBI's, but using those statistics alone takes some | | | | number of bases accrued by a batter, and divide |
| of the fun out of baseball statistics. Put concisely, | | | | it by the number of at-bats for the hitter. For |
| slugging percentage is calculated as the total | | | | instance, if a hitter begins the season and in his |
| number of bases accumulated by a hitter divided | | | | first time up to bat he hits a home run, his |
| by the number of official at-bats for that | | | | slugging percentage is 4.000 (four bases divided |
| particular hitter. | | | | by one at bat). If a hitter goes one for three in a |
| How to Calculate a Hitter's Slugging Percentage | | | | game and hits one single, his slugging percentage |
| The most involved part of calculating slugging | | | | for that game is 0.333 (one base divided by three |
| percentage is sorting out what counts as an | | | | at bats). Slugging percentage is usually calculated |
| at-bat and what does not. Anytime a batter is | | | | out to three decimals, such as 0.550. |
| walked, hit by a pitch, or sacrifices (such as | | | | |