Mets' Brett Baty has a lower OBP than his batting average

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Mets' Brett Baty has a lower OBP than his batting average originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

It's one of those things you don't even remember is possible until you stumble across it.

Somehow, New York Mets youngster Brett Baty currently has a lower on-base percentage than his batting average.

It seems counterintuitive, but through Wednesday's action, Baty has a .203 batting average but only a .197 OBP.

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How can Brett Baty's OBP be lower than average?​

At first glance, it seems like on-base percentage can only be higher than batting average. Usually, that's true. Walks will raise OBP beyond the batting average that doesn't factor in plate appearances that end in bases on balls.

Except this season, Baty has stepped to the plate 61 times and not walked. So that opens the door.

And then you have to enter sacrifices into the equation, either bunts or flies.

Those both count as plate appearances but not as at bats.

So when you're doing the calculation for OBP, you're using a larger plate appearance number, but the same number of hits plus walks plus hit-by-pitches.

In this case, Baty doesn't have a walk or a hit by pitch. But he does have two sacrifice flies.

So where it's 12-for-59 hitting safely, it's 12-for-61 getting on base when he comes to the plate.

Those two sacrifice flies can be considered useful trips to the dish, so it's not totally fair that they negatively impact OBP, but that's how that metric works.

And that's how Baty has a .203 batting average but a .197 on-base percentage midway through April.

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