H-Score — Hitter Strength
H-Score is PitcherStat's proprietary 0–100 hitter-strength score. It looks beyond one batting line by combining a broad set of production, power, contact, discipline and recent-performance signals into a single offensive profile.
In one paragraph
Hitters create value in different ways. Some dominate through power, some through contact and on-base skill, and some combine several strengths without leading the league in any one category. H-Score is designed to recognize those different paths. It organizes a wide set of offensive signals into clear pillars, then expresses the overall season on a 0–100 scale that can be read quickly without losing the shape of the hitter underneath it.
WHAT IT LOOKS AT
H-Score is built from dozens of hitter-level signals organized into readable pillars. The exact formula is proprietary. Qualified hitters are compared on one league-relative 0–100 scale across boards and profiles.
- Productionthe overall quality of the offensive results being created.
- Powerextra-base and home-run impact, supported by quality-of-contact signals where available.
- Contactthe ability to put hittable pitches in play and limit empty swings.
- Plate disciplinethe quality of swing decisions, walks and strike-zone control.
- Recent formenough recent performance to recognize meaningful movement without allowing one hot week to define a season.
WHY NOT BATTING AVERAGE?
Batting average is useful, but it treats very different offensive events too similarly and ignores walks entirely. H-Score is designed around the broader question of offensive strength. A hitter who combines power, on-base ability and disciplined plate appearances can produce a stronger offensive season than a player with a higher batting average but less total impact.
QUALIFICATION
H-Score appears when a hitter has accumulated enough MLB plate appearances for the profile to be evaluated responsibly. Players below the threshold still retain their full statistical profiles, splits and game logs; the absence of a score is a sample-size decision, not a missing player. Current qualification threshold: 100 plate appearances.
Worked example
What it does not mean
- H-Score is primarily an offensive strength score.
- It is not a projection of the next plate appearance.
- It does not turn a tiny batter-versus-pitcher sample into a season-level signal.
- It does not mean two hitters with equal scores create offense in the same way.
- The exact model weights and internal transformations are proprietary.