The chances of a player qualifying for a batting title is not actually determined by how many at bats they have. It is determined by something called plate appearances. Although these sound like the same thing, they are not.
Here, we will go into detail about the differences as well as the definitions of each.
What is an at bat?
An at bat simply refers to when a play goes up to the plate to bat and the whole exchange between batter and opposing team pitcher.
But it is not as simple as that. In order for an at bat to be considered a full at bat that receives credit as such, the plate appearance cannot end in any of these ways:
- The hitter is hit by a pitch.
- They receive a base on balls.
- They hit a sacrifice bunt or a sacrifice fly (can also be called a sacrifice hit).
- The hitter is given first base thanks to an obstruction or any sort of interference.
- The hitter is replaced by one of the other hitters on the team before the at bat is finished.
But any other outcome will result in a complete at bat.
But, if these at bats do not count towards the title, what does?
At bats do count towards the batting title somewhat, but they are not the deciding factor. A player must accumulate 502 plate appearances. You might be thinking that a plate appearance is the same as an at bat. But this is simply not the case.
What is a plate appearance if it is not the same as an at bat?
A plate appearance refers to the batter’s turn at the plate (where the batter stands to hit the pitcher’s ball). A plate appearance is simply a completed turn batting for the player in question.
This means that a plate appearance is far more inclusive than an at bat. And that is why 502 are required to receive a batting title.
What are the differences between them in detail?
Where an at bat is quite exclusive to certain outcomes when a player goes up to bat and has to follow more rules, a plate appearance will refer to any time that a batter comes up to the plate.
A plate appearance will also be granted when any outcome between the batter and pitcher is reached, no matter the result. This means that a plate appearance can include things like walks, hit by pitches and even sacrifice flies; all things that an at bat will not accept.
Why do plate appearances cover more?
The main reason is that some of the situations that the at bats will not cover will happen very often. If a player had to rely on just accumulating at bats in order to gain the batting title, then they would not be allowed to make sacrifice hits or be hit by the pitch.
Since you have to receive 502 plate appearances, this is still a large amount to have to accumulate. But this would obviously take longer if only at bats were counted.
When did this start?
The idea of plate appearances came about in 1954, when some players were getting better results but not qualifying for the batting title simply because they did not have enough at bats to.
Initially, the number of plate appearances needed to win the title was 477, but that changed to 502 and has remained the same since then.
This introduction of plate appearances as the deciding factor served to stop penalizing players that draw a lot of walks in the game. Since a walk will result in no at bat, it does result in a plate appearance, thus plate appearances are counted when awarding the batting title.
Conclusion
The short answer is that you do not need a certain number of at bats in baseball in order to be awarded the batting title. This is because the decision actually lies in the amount of plate appearances the player has had.
You need 502 to be awarded the batting title. The reason for using plate appearances over at bats is that plate appearances are more inclusive of the possible outcomes that may arise when a batter steps up to the plate.