[1] The ability of a player both to get on base and to hit for power, two important offensive skills, are represented.
An OPS of .800 or higher in Major League Baseball puts the player in the upper echelon of hitters.
- the numerator "H + BB + HBP" effectively means "number of trips to first base at least" - the denominator "AB + BB + SF + HBP" effectively means "total plate appearances", but does not include sacrifice bunts This is because though a batter makes a trip to the plate he is not given an "AB" when he walks (BB or HBP) or when he hits the ball into play and is called out, but the action allows a run to score (SF).
As a result, the 4 counts (AB + BB + SF +HBP) are needed to calculate a batter's total trips to the plate.
On-base plus slugging was first popularized in 1984 by John Thorn and Pete Palmer's book, The Hidden Game of Baseball.
[2] The New York Times then began carrying the leaders in this statistic in its weekly "By the Numbers" box, a feature that continued for four years.
Baseball journalist Peter Gammons used and evangelized the statistic, and other writers and broadcasters picked it up.
The popularity of OPS gradually spread, and by 2004 it began appearing on Topps baseball cards.
Substituting quality labels such as excellent (A), very good (B), good (C), average (D), fair (E), poor (F) and very poor (G) for the A–G categories creates a subjective reference for OPS values.
Jimmie Foxx has the highest career OPS for a right-handed batter.
[5] The top ten single-season performances in MLB are (all left-handed hitters): The highest single-season mark for a right-handed hitter was 1.2449 by Rogers Hornsby in 1925, 13th on the all-time list.
Since 1935, the highest single-season OPS for a right-hander is 1.2224 by Mark McGwire in 1998, which was 16th all-time.
A common misconception is that OPS+ closely matches the ratio of a player's OPS to that of their league.
Through the end of the 2019 season, the career top twenty leaders in OPS+ (minimum 3,000 plate appearances) were:[7] The only purely right-handed batters to appear on this list are Browning, Hornsby, Foxx, Orr, Trout, McGwire, Allen, Mays, and Thomas.
The highest single-season performances were:[8] * - Fred Dunlap's historic 1884 season came in the Union Association, which some baseball experts consider not to be a true major league.
He did not play nearly so well when this rule was removed, although injuries may have been mostly to blame, as his fielding statistics similarly declined.