BABIP is Batting Average on Balls In Play. And they sometimes lie, even if Shakira sang, BABIPs Don’t Lie. BABIP is a quick way to know how much luck a hitter is having. There’s more to it, but for the purposes of this, a high BABIP for a hitter and it means the hitter could hit a bloop single just over the pitcher’s head with the infield drawn in. Below .200 and the hitter could hit a line drive into the Grand Canyon and it would get caught by Alice on the back of a mule. Then there’s HR/FB%, which is a quick way to know if a hitter is hitting more home runs than what makes sense for that player’s amount of fly balls. Then there’s LD%, which is the percentage of hits that are line drives. Line drives are usually a sign of solid contact aka a player is hitting the ball hard. Finally, K% or the percentage a hitter Ks. So why all the fancy acronyms? Is it just gas for your inevitable brain fart? Nah, we’re going to see if there’s any hitters out there that are being sucky because they’re unlucky or unsucky because they’re lucky. Anyway, here’s some hitters that have been lucky or unlucky so far for fantasy baseball:
Aramis Ramirez – His K% is poor (24.6%), but it could be because his luck has been so bad (.179 BABIP). I’m not a huge fan of Aramis, but I think he will get better.
Carlos Quentin – His K% isn’t terrible, his LD% is fine, his HR/FB% is low and his BABIP is way off his career average. Quentin should start to produce, if he avoids injury, though that if has its own zip code.
Carlos Lee – Sticking with the Latino Chuck theme, Lee’s LD% isn’t great and his K% is up. Neither is a great sign and he has been swinging at more pitches outside of the strike zone. Even with his HR/FB down, I don’t think we’re going to see a huge bounce back. You might be looking at the beginning of the end.
Ty Wigginton – Not sure this even needs to be said, but Wiggy HR/FB% is out of control and his LD% is poor. At some point, the bottom will fall out hard.
Kyle Blanks – Leads the majors in K%. His average of .180 may not come up that far.
Cameron Maybin – Another guy with a nasty K-rate. It may take another trip to the minors to right Cam-May.
Austin Jackson – I know you people think I’m crazy to tell you Jackson can’t continue what he’s doing, but he really can’t. He’s 18th in the major leagues in K% and he has a .500 BABIP. He’s a .275 hitter, not a .360 one.
Mark Teixeira – LD% is fine, walks are fine, Ks are okay, BABIP is low and his SUPKAKES% is okay. Tex will be better and there’s no such thing as SUPKAKES.
