Average On Base Percentage OPB by MLB Position

If you read the book Moneyball you know the high value that sabremetricians (advocates of Sabremetrics) place on the on base percentage (OBP) statistic . A lot of traditional baseball statistic lovers respect OPB as well.  One big reason for this is that OBP, unlike batting average, gives batters credit for walks.  The argument being that batters are just as responsible for generating walks, with a good eye and patience as pitchers are at avoiding walks.  A player that gets on base should be given credit for a walk.

For a Bit More on On Base Percentage and How to Calculate Click Here

This post will show you the average on base percentage ranked by position in Major League Baseball. For the life of me I could not find average batting statistics by position on-line so I thought I would generate my own from some available numbers. I basically generated the stats by taking the most active 2011 players individual statistic (I thanks ESPN, stats linked here, for those raw, individual stats) and entered them all into an excel sheet by position. Then I broke out the OPB numbers for each player by position, added them together and created an average. Then I ranked the positions from highest on base percentage to lowest. I omitted the pitcher.

Here is how they came out:






Right Field - .355

1st Base - .354

3rd Base - .349

Designated Hitter - .339

Catcher - .337

Center Field - .336

Shortstop - .331

2nd Base - .330

Left Field - .329

That is the average on base percentage OPB ranked by position in Major League Baseball as of 2011.

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Major and Minor League Lowest Salaries in 2011