Steven Kwan of the Guardians went three four four Thursday afternoon to raise his batting average to .367. He also raised his BABIP to .379. One of those hits went for his eighth home run of the season. He hit eleven in total during his first two year in the majors.

Kwan right now provides a good example of how batting average is a combination of BABIP and what I call BABnIP, batting average on balls not in play. BABIP is approximately your BA if you never homer and never strike out (not quite, because BABIP includes sacrifice flies in the denominator). How runs raise your BA above your BABIP, strikeouts know your BA down. BABnIP is simply HR/(HR+K). What a batter should want for a higher BA is a BABnIP is higher than his BABIP.

Kwan struck out 21 times this season, giving him a BABnIP of 8/29, or .276.

Note that in 1941, Ted Williams owned a BABIP of .378. That season, he hit 37 home runs and struck out 27 times for BABnIP of .578. Power and contract is a rare skill, and it’s the big reason he was the last .400 hitter.