At bat

Not to be confused with Plate appearance.

In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during his turn at bat. A batter is only credited with an at bat if that plate appearance does not have one of the results enumerated below. While at bats are used to calculate certain statistics, including batting average and slugging percentage, a player can only qualify for the season-ending rankings in these categories if he accumulates 502 plate appearances during the season.

A batter will not receive credit for an at bat if their plate appearance ends under the following circumstances:

Section 10.02.a.1 of the official rules of Major League Baseball defines an at bat as: "Number of times batted, except that no time at bat shall be charged when a player: (1) hits a sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly; (2) is awarded first base on four called balls; (3) is hit by a pitched ball; or (4) is awarded first base because of interference or obstruction..."[2]

Examples

An at bat is counted when:

At bat as a phrase

"At bat", "up", "up at bat", and "at the plate" are all phrases describing a batter who is facing the pitcher. Note that just because a player is described as being "at bat" in this sense, he will not necessarily be given an at bat in his statistics; the phrase actually signifies a plate appearance (assuming it is eventually completed). This ambiguous terminology is usually clarified by context. To refer explicitly to the technical meaning of "at bat" described above, the term "official at bat" is sometimes used.

References

  1. In 1887, Major League Baseball counted bases on balls as hits. The result was high batting averages, including some near .500, and the experiment was abandoned the following season.
  2. "Rule 10.01: The Rules of Scoring" (PDF). Official Baseball Rules. Commissioner of Baseball, Major League Baseball. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-25.

See also

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