Batting average and OBP

[zev_steinhardt]

OK, I’m usually pretty good with baseball and math, but I can’t figure this one out.

Alfonso Soriano, at this point, has a .275 OBP and a .277 AVG. How?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but BA = H/AB and OBP = H+BB+HBP/AB+BB+HBP. How is it possible to have a lower OBP than batting average?

Zev Steinhardt

[SmackFu]

From the April 18th Rob Neyer column on this very subject:

Yes, it’s possible to have a higher batting average than on-base percentage, because sacrifice flies count as plate appearances when computing OBP, but they don’t count as at-bats when computing batting average. On a practical level, that means that if you have more sacrifice flies than walks+HBP, your OBP will be lower than your batting average. And that’s exactly what we see with Soriano, who’s got one SF and zero BB.

[zev_steinhardt]

Thank you, SmackFu. I knew that there was a simple answer out there. I was just missing the SF.

Zev Steinhardt