You see a .312 batting average or a 3.40 ERA and think… is that good? It depends on the stat, and the honest answer is that most fans never learn the cutoffs. Here they are — the elite-to-poor bands for every core MLB stat, the same ones Baseball NUT uses to color-code every number on its leaderboards. Gold is elite, blue is great, green is good, gray is average, red is poor.

What is a good batting average (AVG)?

The share of at-bats that become hits. Simple, familiar, and famously incomplete — it ignores walks and power — but still the first number most fans check.

What is a good on-base percentage (OBP)?

How often a hitter reaches base — hits, walks, and hit-by-pitches. It correlates with scoring runs far better than average does.

What is a good slugging percentage (SLG)?

Total bases per at-bat — the power stat. A single is worth 1, a home run 4, so SLG rewards extra-base damage.

What is a good OPS?

On-base plus slugging — the most useful one-number hitting stat, combining getting on base with hitting for power. If you learn one hitting benchmark, learn this one.

What is a good ERA?

Earned runs allowed per nine innings — the classic pitching benchmark. Lower is better, and the bands flip: gold is the lowest ERA, red the highest.

What is a good WHIP?

Walks plus hits per inning pitched — how many base runners a pitcher allows. It cuts out defense and luck better than ERA, and lower is better.

The shortcut: one number instead of six

Memorizing six benchmarks is a lot. That’s the whole reason we built the NUT Score — it rolls a player’s full production into a single value on one scale, so you can tell elite from average at a glance without cross-checking a slash line. Every stat on Baseball NUT is also color-coded to the bands above, and you can see exactly where a player ranks with percentile rankings.

Pull up any leaderboard and the colors do the work — gold and blue jump out, red flags the strugglers. Every stat’s full definition lives in the glossary.

Now that you know the benchmarks, see them in action — every stat color-coded on the leaderboards at baseballnut.app.