Baseball and softball abbreviations

Two languages, one stat

Many Hispanic leagues in the US keep their stats in Spanish, so the same number can show up as RBI on one sheet and CI on another. Spanish abbreviations come partly from English (HR, OPS, WHIP) and partly from Spanish words (CI, VB, EFE), and they vary a little from country to country.

Each entry below gives the English abbreviation first, then the Spanish one when it’s different, and what it means.

Batting

AB (VB in Spanish, veces al bate): at-bats, the official turns at the plate. Walks, hit by pitches, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies and catcher’s interference don’t count as at-bats. In much of the Caribbean an at-bat is a turno al bate, written TB, which is easy to mix up with total bases.

PA (AP in Spanish): plate appearances, every completed turn at the plate, whether or not it counts as an at-bat.

R (C in Spanish, carreras): runs scored, the times a player crossed home plate.

H: hits, also called imparables in Spanish. 2B are doubles, 3B triples and HR home runs (jonrones). A single, when listed on its own, is 1B.

TB: total bases. A single is worth one, a double two, a triple three and a home run four.

RBI (CI in Spanish, carrera impulsada): a run batted in, one that scores because of the batter’s action: a hit, a sacrifice, a groundout, or a walk or hit by pitch with the bases loaded. No RBI is credited when the run scores on an error or on a double play. Depending on the country, Spanish sheets may also say CE (carreras empujadas) or CP (carreras producidas).

BB: base on balls, a walk (boleto in Spanish). It’s BB in both languages. An intentional walk is IBB, or BBI in Spanish.

K or SO: strikeouts (ponches). Spanish tables use K.

HBP (GP in Spanish, golpeado por lanzamiento): hit by pitch. Some sheets write HP, and some Spanish ones BG (bateador golpeado).

SF: sacrifice fly. SH or SAC: sacrifice bunt. Neither counts as an at-bat.

LOB: left on base, the runners still on base when the third out was made.

Baserunning

SB (BR in Spanish, bases robadas): stolen bases. RosterMetrix’s Spanish tables use BR, so don’t read it as a walk: a walk is always BB.

CS (AR in Spanish, atrapado robando): caught stealing. Watch out: in RosterMetrix’s Spanish pitching table, CS means carreras sucias, unearned runs.

Advancing on a wild pitch (WP), a passed ball (PB) or a balk (BK) is not a stolen base.

Pitching

IP: innings pitched. They’re counted in outs: 5.2 means five innings and two outs, so five and two-thirds, not five and two-tenths.

W and L (G and P in Spanish, ganados y perdidos): the pitcher’s wins and losses. Some Spanish tables write JG and JP. SV (S or JS in Spanish, salvados): saves.

GS (JI in Spanish): games started. CG (JC in Spanish): complete games.

On a pitching line, H, R, HR, BB, K and HBP mean the same as in batting, but allowed: hits, runs, home runs, walks, strikeouts and hit batters.

ER (CL in Spanish, carreras limpias): earned runs, the ones the pitcher allowed without help from errors or passed balls. To decide whether a run is earned, you replay the inning as if those errors hadn’t happened. Unearned runs are CS in Spanish, carreras sucias.

NP or PC (Lanz. in Spanish, lanzamientos): number of pitches, the pitch count.

BAA or OBA (AVG rival in Spanish): batting average against, what opposing hitters batted against that pitcher. VB rival is the number of at-bats he faced.

Fielding

PO: putouts, credited to the fielder who touches the base, tags the runner or catches the fly. Some Spanish tables write O.

A: assists, the throws or deflections that helped another fielder make an out.

E: errors, a play the fielder should have made with ordinary effort and didn’t.

DP: double play (doble play or doble matanza), two outs on one play. TP: triple play.

TC: total chances, the sum of putouts, assists and errors.

Rate stats and how to calculate them

AVG: batting average, hits divided by at-bats. Spanish tables may also say AVE or PRO. It’s written to three decimals without the leading zero: .300 is three hits for every ten at-bats.

OBP: on-base percentage. Add hits, walks and hit by pitches, then divide by at-bats plus walks plus hit by pitches plus sacrifice flies. Sacrifice bunts are left out.

SLG: slugging percentage, total bases divided by at-bats.

OPS: on-base plus slugging, OBP and SLG simply added together: a .350 OBP and a .450 SLG make an .800 OPS.

ERA (EFE in Spanish, efectividad, or PCL, promedio de carreras limpias): earned run average, the earned runs a pitcher allows per full game. Multiply earned runs by nine and divide by innings pitched. In softball, where a regulation game is seven innings, multiply by seven. Convert innings to thirds before dividing: 5.2 is five and two-thirds innings.

WHIP: walks plus hits allowed, divided by innings pitched. It tells you how many runners a pitcher puts on base per inning.

K/9 and BB/9: strikeouts and walks per nine innings. Multiply by nine and divide by innings pitched. Softball uses seven (K/7). K/BB is strikeouts divided by walks.

FPCT: fielding percentage. Add putouts and assists and divide by total chances, which is putouts plus assists plus errors. A fielder with no errors is at 1.000.

How plays are written on the scoresheet

Every position has a number: 1 pitcher, 2 catcher, 3 first base, 4 second base, 5 third base, 6 shortstop, 7 left field, 8 center field and 9 right field.

K: swinging strikeout. Kc, or a backwards K: called strikeout, strike three looking.

BB: walk, and IBB the intentional one. HBP or HP: hit by pitch, written GP on Spanish sheets.

E6: error on the shortstop. The number says who made it: E1 is on the pitcher, E9 on the right fielder.

FC: fielder’s choice (jugada de selección). The batter reaches first because the defense chose to retire another runner. It counts as an at-bat, not a hit.

SH or SAC: sacrifice bunt. SF: sacrifice fly.

F8: fly ball caught by the center fielder. L5: line drive caught by the third baseman.

6-3: ground ball to the shortstop, thrown to first. The numbers follow the ball: 4-3 is a grounder to second, and 3U is an unassisted out by the first baseman.

DP: double play, written with its path. 6-4-3 goes shortstop to second to first.

The ones RosterMetrix uses

In English, RosterMetrix’s tables use AB, R, H, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, BB, HBP, SF, SO, SB, CS, AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS for batting; IP, H, ER, UER, BB, SO, HR, HBP, Pitches, W, L, SV, ERA, WHIP, BAA, AB against, K/9, BB/9 and K/BB for pitching; and PO, A, E, DP, TP, TC and FPCT for fielding.

In Spanish, the same tables use VB, C, H, 2B, 3B, HR, CI, BB, GP, SF, K, BR, AR, AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS for batting; IP, H, CL, CS, BB, K, HR, GP, Lanz., G, P, S, EFE, WHIP, AVG rival, VB rival, K/9, BB/9 and K/BB for pitching. Fielding keeps the same letters.

To work one out by hand, the free calculators at /en/tools compute AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, ERA and WHIP. A league on RosterMetrix doesn’t calculate anything: every time a game is approved, the tables, the leaders and each player’s page come out with all of these numbers.