Definition of a Hit in Baseball
Definition 1
Among the balls hit by a batter that land in a valid area, the number of batted balls excluding fielder’s choices and errors is called a hit, abbreviated H. There are four types of hits: singles, doubles, triples, and home Runs.
Theorem
- [1]: For PA, AB, and H, the following inequality holds. $$ \begin{align*} H \le AB \le PA \\ 안타 \le 타수 \le 타석 \end{align*} $$
Explanation
Fielder’s Choice and Error
A fielder’s Choice refers to the case where the batter could originally have been put out, but the fielder chose to throw to another base and the batter reached safely. A fielder’s choice is not a hit, but since it increases at-bats, it is a record that lowers batting average and slugging percentage themselves.
An error refers to the case where the batter should originally have been put out by the fielder’s defense, but reached base due to a mistake.
Sabermetrics
At-bats are hard to understand, but hits are easy to understand. As mentioned in the definition, there are only four cases. According to the scoring rules, a data analyst need not even know the words “fielder’s choice” and “error.”
The meaning of excluding fielder’s choices and errors in the definition is that it minimizes the intervention of chance; it counts not “reaching base by whatever means is all that matters,” but “scoring contributions created with the bat.” One can regard it as a basic cumulative stat used to compute a batter’s hitting metrics.