During the July 4th Yankee baseball game Brett Gardener hit a fly ball into the outfiled. This went off the glove of a fielder and was ruled an error. Gardener continued to round the bases and scored on his hit. This gave him 2 RBI's (runs batted in) and 1 run scored.
This got me thinking how would reaching base on an error would effect Gardener's Batting average. My original assumption is that it would be treated the same way as a walk is.
For people who are unaware if a player is at bat and is walked, hit by a pitch or sacrifices a runner over the at bat is now considered a plate appearance so it does not count positively or negatively toward their batting average. It is counted as a plate appearance and not even considered an at bat.
Ex. If you have a single, walk, ground out and strike out then you went 1-3 and batted .333.
I found out that my assumption was incorrect and that reaching base on an error counts against your batting average. I was pretty outraged. I do not believe that you should be able to successfully reach base and have it count against your average. What ever happened to good ole just put the ball in play and things happen. I understand that you should not be credited but I do not think it should count at all.
This led to the question of what about on base percentage? I found out that the player's on base percentage would be negatively effected as well. This originally outraged me because I was always under the foolish impression that your on base percentage was the percentage of time you reach base - point blank period.
This was foolish because I did not consider a fielders choice (when you would be clearly out but the fielders choose to get a lead runner out instead.) This made a surprising amount of sense but did not help give me closure on the reaching on an error situation. I since have spoken to a variety of people who like baseball and do not care and have heard a variety of opinions on whether it should count against your batting average/on base percentage, towards your on base percentage or only count as a plate appearance. I stand strong in the plate appearance camp.
What do you think?
