If you are a baseball fan, you know that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year. They were also one of only two teams to get more singles, doubles, triples, and home runs than the league average. Perhaps a few sabermetricians already know the other team? It was the Colorado Rockies, who finished with a 74-88 record despite having the third most hits in the league. The Detroit Tigers, who led the league in hits, finished with only 23 triples, which was below the league average of approximately 26.

These graphics show the total hits and distribution of hits for each team, relative to the league average. While the total hits graphic better reflects the overall strengths and weaknesses of each team’s batting, I decided to generate the distribution graphic because it removes the bias of how well a team played. I have a friend who is a huge Houston Astros fan, and I figured that it would be nice for her to be able to say, “Sure, my team tied for the second fewest hits in the league last year, but in those rare occurrences when they got a hit, it was 0.3% more likely to be a home run than the league average!” Hmmm…that still doesn’t make them sound very impressive.

Happy return of the MLB season, baseball fans. May the low-paid A’s crush the wealthy Tigers, and all other foes who stand in their path.

Data source: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2013.shtml