Plate appearance

In baseball, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting.

A very similar baseball statistic, at bats, counts a subset of plate appearances that end under certain circumstances.

A lesser criterion applies in the minor leagues, with 2.7 plate appearances per game required to qualify.

In a real-life example, in 2012, Melky Cabrera, then of the San Francisco Giants, finished the season with a league-high .346 batting average, but he had only 501 plate appearances, one short of the required 502.

The reason Cabrera finished the season with only 501 plate appearances was because he was suspended in mid-August when he tested positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Under Rule 9.15(b), the pinch hitter would receive the plate appearance (and potential of an at-bat) unless the original batter is replaced when having 2 strikes against him and the pinch hitter subsequently completes the strikeout, in which case the plate appearance and at-bat are charged to the first batter.

Official Baseball Rule 5.06(c) provides that "[a] batter has legally completed his time at bat when he is put out or becomes a runner" (emphasis added).

Plate appearances are a primary component in calculating on-base percentage (OBP), an alternative measurement of a player's offensive performance, but are not the only one in determining its denominator.