Additionally, a large number of strikeouts is also an indication that a batter has a difficult time making contact or recognizing pitches.īoth statistics provide you with a basic summary of some raw information that is often relevant, but also help you make quick inferences about the type of player you’re observing.
Since strikeouts are almost always automatic outs, you know that a strikeout, unlike a ball in play, is always a negative outcome, so a batter who strikes out frequently is someone who is failing to provide value during those PA. K% is the same in that it provides you with a summary of how frequently a batter strikes out, but it also gives you a sense of the batter’s ability to make contact. Not only does BB% provide a summary of how often a batter has walked, but it also provides some information about their underlying approach. If a player routinely draws walks, they are likely very good at distinguishing between balls and strikes, which will not only lead to more times on base via a walk, but will also likely lead them to make better contact because they will be more likely to swing at pitches which they can drive. Generally speaking, K% and BB% tell you something about a player’s plate discipline and contact skills. You may be familiar with K/9 or BB/9 with respect to pitchers, but since batters are much more typically judged on a per PA scale, there’s not much use for a per game strikeout or walk metric for hitters. Please remember that this is a raw statistic and no corrections are made for league average, park effect, or games situation. You simply divide the strikeouts or walks by the total number of plate appearances: K% and BB% are two of the easiest statistics to calculate. As always, it’s important to consider strikeout or walk rate in the context of the overall set of skills. If a player is still getting hits, walking, and reaching base at a high rate, then they can still be a valuable offensive piece with a high strikeout rate. Strikeout rates are a bit tougher to pin down - while making an out is bad, striking out isn’t necessarily worse than any other sort of out. High walk rates are good for batters because it means they’re reaching base often, while low walk rates are only acceptable if a player has exceptional power or contact skills to make up for it. They’re measured in percentage form, so it’s easy to compare between players and years, but you should be cautious because league average has shifted over time.
Strikeout rate (K%) and walk rate (BB%) measure how often a hitter walks or strikes out on a per plate appearance basis.
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