The traditional measure of hitting ability has long been batting average, given by BA = H/AB. Another measure of a batter's productivity is on base percentage OBP = (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+HBP+SF). A measure of power-hitting ability is slugging average SGA = TB/AB, where TB is the number of total bases, given by TB=H+D+2T+3HR.

A relatively new measure of a hitter's offensive effectiveness is the on-base plus slugging percentage, OPS = OBP+SLG. Batting average and OPS are shown in red in the rows of statistics. The OPS of a good offensive player is considered to be in the range of .900 to .950. Some baseball greats have achieved OPS of 1.000 or higher. For example, Babe Ruth has the highest career OPS at 1.1636. He is followed by Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig.