I agree with what you are saying... Batting Average has it's value...I think the point most statheads have is that obp and slg give almost all the information you need, just at a glance... In the scenarios yopu described, knowing the ba is very helpful, but maybe not so much as the OPS You see, Batting Average is a great stat to help you once you already know the OPS...that's the way i see it at least...just like other corollary stats like k's, hr's, rbi's, etc...