Plate Appearance - PA

What does Plate Appearance - PA Mean?

A statistic in baseball that is earned when a player completes a turn at batting with a hit, walk, out or reaching base on an error. Plate Appearances don't occur when the batters time is interrupted before completion by way of events such as an existing runner being caught stealing or being picked off to end the inning or if the batter is replaced by a pinch hitter.

Sporting Charts explains Plate Appearance - PA

The Plate Appearance metric is mainly used in determining player eligibility for leadership in stat categories such as batting average, which requires 3.1 PAs per game schedule to qualify as a leader.

Plate Appearance includes any At Bat (AB), Base on Balls (BB), Hit By Pitch (HBP), Sacrifice Hit (SAC), Sacrifice Fly (SF) and any times a batter reaches base due to defensive interference.