# Batting average and OBP

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/batting-average-and-obp/63755>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2001, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/batting-average-and-obp/63755 "2001-04-29T20:01:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/batting-average-and-obp/63755/1 "2001-04-29T20:01:49Z")

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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

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/batting-average-and-obp/63755/2 "2001-04-29T20:15:10Z")

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From the [April 18th Rob Neyer column](http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2001/0403/1166683.html) 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.

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/batting-average-and-obp/63755/3 "2001-04-29T20:28:59Z")

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

Zev Steinhardt