The days of only paying attention to batting average should be far in our rearview mirror. Batting average is important, but it also ignores walks and treats singles, doubles, triples and home runs all the same. That's ridiculous and people who ignore OBP and SLG in favor of batting average are simply choosing to be willfully ignorant.
The best hitters are the most well-rounded ones that score high in all three slashes. That's where we end up with our best hitters above the .300/.400/.500 threshold (though maybe we should up slugging to .550 or even .600 these days with the baseballs being so juiced).
Only the truly very best hitters stay above all three. Here are the hitters who got there in the last three seasons.
- 2016: Joey Votto, Mike Trout, David Ortiz, Freddie Freeman
- 2017: Jose Altuve, Justin Turner, Joey Votto, Freddie Freeman, Tommy Pham, Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon
- 2018: Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Christian Yelich, Mike Trout
Right now, there are but three qualifying players set to make it.
- Christian Yelich's season is over at .329/.429/.671
- Cody Bellinger is barely hanging on in average and on-base at .304/.407/.625
- Anthony Rendon is safe at .333/.417/.629
Mike Trout's season is also over and he falls nine batting average points shy. Here are some others with a shot to join the above trio.
- Alex Bregman is at .295/.420/.579
- Juan Soto is at .294/.405/.572
- Freeman is looking for his third in the last four seasons, and he's at .302/.393/.567
- Kris Bryant is hot right now and overall he's slashing .289/.388/.537
- Mookie Betts is close at .293/.391/.527
- Ketel Marte is slashing .326/.387/.589
- Jeff McNeil is at .319/.387/.589
As with any stat, this is not the so-called "be-all, end-all" straw man that people like to scream against on Twitter. But the best sign of a great, well-rounded hitter is the .300/.400/.500 mark, and this has been a sampling of the best all around hitters in baseball this season.
