'In the Dugout' is a monthly column written by a local youth, travel, high school or collegiate coach about a specific aspect of the game. This month's guest columnist is Herndon High School head coach Greg Miller, who writes about the importance of stressing and tracking player's quality at-bats, and their impact on a game's outcome.
Quality At Bat (QAB) Average is something that was introduced to me during my college career at JMU. It was also used by the entire Atlanta Braves organization throughout my three years of playing minor league baseball.
A player's QAB average is a way to determine how productive they are by taking into account more than his batting average or on-base percentage.
First, let’s talk about with what constitutes a “Quality At-Bat”. There are eight ways in which a hitter can be credited with one of these - via base hit; hard-hit ball at the coach’s discretion; a sacrifice bunt; an at-bat that results in a run being driven in; a walk; a hit-by-pitch (they did not count this at JMU, but they did in the Braves’ system); moving a runner from second base to third with no outs; and an eight-pitch at-bat.
To figure out a hitter’s QAB average, you would take the number of QABs, and divide it by plate appearances. The Braves’ organization used the following rubric to judge QAB effectiveness. Coaches can tweak this any way they feel fit.
Excellent: .500+
Good: .450-.499
Average: .400-.449
Below Average: .350-.399
Poor: Under .350
Calculating QAB can be especially useful at the high school level, where players do not get the same number of at-bats as they would in a college for professional season.
In a high school season, a few hits can mean the difference between hitting .250 and .300. So, QAB is a great way to take “average” out of the equation and get a better sense of how productive a hitter is.
Take for example: a hitter who is 12-for-50 on the year. This hitter is only hitting .240. But let’s say this hitter has also drawn eight walks, hit five balls hard for outs, has four sacrifice bunts, and five RBI situations that didn’t result in a hit. That .240 hitter has a QAB Average of .472.
Most hitters would not be happy with a .240 hitter, but in this example the hitter is proving to be a very productive hitter in the lineup without hitting for a high batting average.
In my 12 years of coaching at Herndon (six as the hitting coach, six as the head coach), I have discovered that QAB average has been a great way to get hitters to worry more about being a “productive” hitter and less about what his average is. We even have an award for whoever has the highest QAB average at the end of the year that we call the ‘Brandon Guyer Award’ named after the current Tampa Bay Rays outfielder and holder of the highest QAB average we have had at Herndon (.585).
The main reason we use Quality at-bats is because having a high QAB average in a specific game almost always equals a win. In our seven wins so far this season, our overall team QAB has been over .527. It comes as no surprise that in our seven losses, our team QAB has been just .313. It doesn’t take long for players to figure this out and buy into the importance of QABs.
At Herndon, we spend a lot of time practicing moving runners from second base to third, and scoring them from home with less than two outs. Our staff feels the more we can put our hitters in these situations in practice, the more they will feel comfortable with it in a game.
In this day-and-age of less scoring and less home runs, finding ways to produce runs has become imperative. Part of the challenge is getting players to be unselfish and give up worrying about their batting average for the betterment of the team.
The college and professional game has changed as well, with more emphasis is being put on having Quality at-bats. In the year 2000, 24,971 runs were scored in the Major Leagues. Last year 20,398 runs were scored. That is 4,573 less runs scored in the 2,430 regular season games, just under 1.9 runs a game.
So, coaches at all levels are looking for ways to score more. Hitters who are productive at the plate are valuable assets to any team. A hitter with a low batting average, but a high QAB average, can find his way into a lineup at any level.
For coaches, keeping track of QAB can help quantitate which hitters are truly being productive. It also helps to create an unselfish atmosphere where hitters are more worried about the quality and production of their at-bat as opposed to just the outcome.
Editor’s Note: Miller is in his sixth season as the head coach at Herndon, where he graduated from as the school’s all-time leader in hits in 1997 and served as an assistant coach with for six seasons before taking the reigns of the program in 2010. He led the Hornets to their first regional berth since 2006 last spring, and Herndon is 57-49 since he took over from longtime coach Al McCullock. Miller is also the all-time leader in hits at James Madison University, and was a South Atlantic League All-Star while playing for the Atlanta Braves’ Single A affiliate in Macon, Georgia, in 2002.
Photo Courtesy/Herndon Baseball
