John Benesch on the 2006 Sporting News Baseball Guide

Carlos,

Received my 2006 TSN Guide in the mail yesterday.

In identifying the SL batting leaders, TSN lists “Young” as the Slugging Leader at .545. There is a Christopher Young [Birmingham] in the stats who compiled a .545 Slugging Average.

There is also a Delmon Young [Montgomery] who fell short of qualifying by having only 370 Plate Appearances [vs. the 378 required for qualifying].

By adding the shortfall ['ghost' appearances] to his ABs [330] we come up with a Slugging Average of .568 [192 TB's / 338 ABs].

By this process, the Southern League 2005 'Slugging' leader should be Delmon Young [actual figure: .582].

John

This, of course, is not a Sporting News error, but an error on the part of the statisticians. Most people never check to see if theoretical PAs would make somebody a league leader in either batting or slugging.

Thanks, John.