i know the stats are skewed by how few games there have been in the season so far, but. denae benites is batting .824 with an OPS of 2.484. baseball newcomers, THESE NUMBERS ARE OFF-THE-CHARTS INSANE.
for the curious and uninitiated:
a player's batting average is calculated by dividing their total number of hits (a hit being, broadly speaking, any time the player hits the ball and successfully gets on base rather than getting out) by their total number of at-bats. out of 17 at-bats, benites has gotten a hit 14 times. that means her batting average is .824, and like i said, i know this is partially due to a small sample size, but for context, a good batting average generally hovers around .300, and anything higher than .340 is exceptional. .824 is crazy.
that second stat is on-base plus slugging (OPS), which reflects not just how often a batter gets on base, but also factors in how far the batter got around the bases - that is to say, hitting a single is worth something, but hitting a double has more weight because it indicates a more powerful hit, and so on and so forth. the statistic measuring a batter's power is called their slugging percentage (SLG). this stat and the on-base percentage (OBP) can stand alone, but are often combined as a holistic measurement of batting skill and strategy. an average OPS resides around .730, and a 1.000 OPS is phenomenal. denae benites has an OPS of 2.484.
i can't stress enough - the more games they play, the more these stats will start to flatten out. if these numbers last for the next couple Heights games, i'll be gobsmacked. but even still, this is a remarkable feat. the next highest batting average in the league is natsuki yonetani, batting .688 with a 1.597 OPS. that is also amazing, but you'll notice it's significantly lower than benites's stats, and these two have had almost the same number of at-bats (yonetani has 16).
and by the way, for some stats that are mind-boggling independent of how short the season has been so far, benites also currently leads the league in:
home runs, with 5 home runs across 4 games and at least one per game - behind her is jamie mackay with 2
RBIs (runs batted in), with 15 RBIs - the next-highest would be sarah edwards, with 7
stolen bases, with 6 steals (half of which are from last night!). that's twice as many as ashton lansdell, who's second on this leaderboard
like...no one in the league is anywhere close to denae benites's level. she is in a class by herself. even if these stats are inflated by small sample size, they're still a signal flare on their own. benites needs no time at all to prove how good she is. if you put her at the plate - any plate - she will make you regret it.
