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One thing I notice in simming many, many seasons...the guys that don't strike out much always seem to have excellent batting averages. I'll list a few examples among players in a 67-year sim I'm working with now:
All-time Top Hits leaders (with hits, strikeouts, and AVG)
Top 4 catchers combined: 8927 H, 1284 K, .310
4 of Top 5 first basemen: 12146, 1958 K, .310. The #3 hits guy had 2126 K, but is the only one of top 5 below .300, at .274
4 of Top 5 second basemen: 10953 H, 1939 K, .311. Again, the #3 guy had 1511 K with lowest AVG (.280) of the bunch
4 of Top 5 third basemen: 13307 H, 2847 K, .336. The #3 guy here had 1480 K and again lowest AVG at .294
Among the top 10 all-time shortstops, the three with the most strikeouts had the three lowest batting averages.
38 guys have over 1,000 career strikeouts. Only 8 have an average above .280
Now let's ask ourselves if there's a difference in importance between EYE and AVOIDS K.
Of the top 38 career walks guys, 28 have an average above .280. Of the 10 who do not, 6 have more than 1,000 strikeouts. Only 4 of the other 28 walks leaders batting above .280 have over 1,000 K. That's 60% of players who are below .280 versus 14% who are above.
According to this small study, guys with a high EYE tend to have a good average, while guys with a high AVOIDS K also tend to have a good average.
Further, of the league's active career RBI leaders, 9 of the top 20 are batting below .280 All but one have more K than RBI. Meanwhile, 5 of these 20 are over .300 - only one has more K than RBI (and it isn't by much, 992 to 980)
Based on what I am seeing, I would certainly say that there is a direct correlation between a player's AVOIDS K and his batting average. And of course, reaching base on an error counts as an out as far as AVG is concerned. So that's just a bonus for these guys.
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