Mendoza Line

The Mendoza Line is an unofficial term used in baseball, with a threshold value of the offensive strength of a player is called. The statistical value at which this threshold is defined, is the batting average.

Origin

The term goes back to the Mexican baseball player Mario Mendoza. Mendoza played from 1974 to 1982 in the MLB, first for the Pittsburgh Pirates, then for the Seattle Mariners and last for the Texas Rangers. He was on the defensive very strong, but his batting average over nine seasons in the MLB was usually around .200, which means that only one out of five of his at-bats, he scored a hit. A very strong offensive player reached in one of three at-bats a hit. The absolute value of the Mendoza Line is not set, it is usually seen with a batting average of about .200. The term is meant to go back to George Brett, who then looked at the statistics of the match reports if another player had beaten weaker than Mendoza.

Importance

The meaning of the term for a baseball team is in the balance, to which the lower value in the impact strength of a defensive strong player is still valuable enough for a team to get him to use in the Starting Nine, the starting lineup of a team. Since each field player shall be used except for the pitcher in the offensive, take a beating weaker players from a probable in purchase. However, if the defensive assess this player so that he can more baserunner and thus prevent points of the opponent, as he scored offensively, so its use in the starting line -up may be useful. When players use the end of a game, save the strong players are anyway already used frequently, especially when their team is in the lead.

Further use of the term

In American literature, the term found its way into areas outside of baseball. Thus, the expression Mendoza Line is used for a movie in the movie business, its grossing in a movie theater for a weekend is less than the cost of copying and sending it in the end so would be better not to show this film there. Even in other sports, the term is used to denote a situation in which it is questionable whether the use of an athlete 's overall success - sporty or economical - contributes.