Secondary average is a nice little stat that tracks a player's hitting contributions outside of simple "batting." It consists of the following:
(TB - H + BB + SB - CS) / AB
It's a very simple calculation and tells us a lot about how players advance on the bases (valuable part of run scoring and production). I look for players who post extremely low secondary averages, relative to their batting, to see which hitters are least useful, at times. So here are two lists, for your reading pleasure:
Top 10, Secondary Average
- David Dellucci: .636
- Adam Dunn: .604
- Derrek Lee: .565
- Bobby Abreu: .544
- Chipper Jones: .504
- Alex Rodriguez: .503
- Jim Edmonds: .500
- Brian Giles: .486
- Lyle Overbay: .472
- Brian Roberts: .470
- Cesar Izturis: -.209
- Aaron Miles: -.167
- Nook Logan: -.157
- Yadier Molina: -.152
- Shea Hillenbrand: -.146
- Carlos Guillen: -.142
- Brady Clark: -.132
- Placido Polanco: -.129
- Sean Burroughs: -.126
- Garrett Anderson: -.123
This methodology for looking for the "empty batting averages" is not flawless. In reality, Brady Clark is not having a bad year, it's just that his .330 average is a relatively "weak" .330. In this sense, it is similar to isolated power. Brady Clark's lack of secondary average doesn't make him a bad player - it's just that he's not doing a fantastic job of producing more bases.