July 23, 2009

I Think He's Kidding. I Hope He Is...

From Mark Eckel's latest:

As far as getting that bat off the bench to supplant either Eric Bruntlett or John Mayberry Jr., who together are hitting .301 (Mayberry is at .173 and Bruntlett is at .128), the Phils reportedly asked about Colorado's Ryan Spilborghs.
I really, really hope Eckel knows that batting average is a percentage out of 1,000, and if you combine two players' averages, you then divide by 2,000. Therefore, Bruntlett and Mayberry's combined batting average is not .301, but rather .154.

If Eckel is kidding, good. If not, this is the worst math mistake by a Philly sports pundit since the time Jack McCaffrey said on the radio that the reason the National League is worse than the American League is because it has two more teams, and therefore the NL has 50 players who otherwise wouldn't be in the majors.

Posted by Stephen Silver at July 23, 2009 10:33 PM
Comments

Actually, unless they have the same number of at-bats, your math is off. If someone is 300 for 1,000 (.300) and another is 1 for 2 (.500), that doesn't average out to .400.

You just need to add all the hits and all the at-bats and then divide. In this case, it rounds to .140 combined.

Posted by: Jeremy at July 24, 2009 07:35 AM
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