Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Emptiest of Batting Averages

I was listening to the Jonah Keri Podcast on Grantland recently, and he had Phillies beat writer Matt Gelb on the show.  Gelb talked about all the sad things that Phillies fans are already tired of discussing, but he did make a statement that I found particularly poignant.  He described Ben Revere’s season as something to the effect of “the emptiest batting average ever.”  By empty, he means that while Revere is hitting above .300, an impressive feat in this offense-starved MLB landscape, he does so with almost no walks or extra-base hits.   His value at the plate is almost entirely in the form of singles.  This comment got me thinking: Just how empty is his batting average?