What is Sacrifice Hits ?

A sacrifice hit, often referred to a sacrifice bunt, is a ball put into play in the infield allowing a runner on the bases to advance one or more bases but results in the hitter being called out at or before first base. This is often an done intentionally to move runners forward with a weaker hitter at the plate, for example a pitcher. A pitcher is charged with a sacrifice hit when it happens a plate appearance for which they are pitching. Generally, for Sacrifice Hits, lower is better. (Source)

What is a good Sacrifice Hits?

What does good Sacrifice Hits mean? "Good" baseball stats can be very subjective and mean different things to different people. I have attempted to quantify good and bad by taking season and career stats for MLB pitchers with a minimum number of pitched outs. In this case 100 for career and 50 for a season. To find good and bad within this cohort of players I calculated the first and third quartiles, anything between these quartiles I consider average. This makes up the middle 50% of players. In an example where higher is better for a stat, below the first quartile (bottom 25% of players) would be bad and above the 3rd quartile (top 25% of players) would be good. For stats where lower is better, flip around good and bad.
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Career, Season, and Season Average Sacrifice Hits Records

For my hot take on Sacrifice Hits records most of the same rules apply from the first section. To be considered for my prestigious lists the player must meet a certain threshold of pitched outs. Since this is a Pitching stat to be considered for the career list the player must have over 100 pitched outs, for a season consideration the player must have had 75 pitched outs. Additionally, the player's final game must have been after 1899.
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Distribution of Career Sacrifice Hits by Player Generation

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Distribution of Season Sacrifice Hits by Player Generation

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Distribution of Career Sacrifice Hits by Player Position

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Distribution of Season Sacrifice Hits by Player Position

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