So, THAT's what's wrong with him...

by craig3410 on Apr 20, 2007 12:25 PM EDT Comment 9 comments

Right now, Albert is hitting .190/.299/.431 with 4 homers and 6 XBH overall. Now, we're all scared out our damn minds right now, but I think I've found his problem:

Luck.

At this point, everything is running against him; according to BPro, the pitchers he's faced have allowed batters to a .229/.313/.354 line, hitting in general is down all around, as so far this year, the NL is hitting .253/.329/.390, as opposed to last year when the NL hit .265/.334/.427, so far, he's hit a quarter of his flies as infield popups, and worst of all, his BABIP is in the "sweet mother of god that's terrible" territory of .152. (.290's average.)

He'll be fine.

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Just noticed, too...

BABIP's also the reason for Chris Duncan's nice start; he's hitting .400 on balls in play.

by craig3410 on Apr 20, 2007 12:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

.152 babip

i only put so much stock into BABIP talk because it only makes sense that a player not hitting it well isn't going to have a high BABIP. Slow weak rollers to 3b and 'can-o-corn' popups don't drop for hits. that has nothing to do with luck. if a player is squaring the ball and hitting line drives, it only makes sense that more of them are going to drop for hits as they are much tougher to defend.

10-time World Champs!

by TheFranchise9 on Apr 20, 2007 1:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

BABIP for hitters

is definitely not random. Poor hitters will have poor BABIPs (also, hitters who strike out more, homer more, and combinations of those things as well as your David Ecksteins who do neither, will all have different sorts of BABIPs in general).

You can use the players LD% to get a decent read on how much luck is a factor in a player's current batting. Pujols is only hitting 10% LD right now (the general rule is LD% + .12) so he is getting a little unlucky, but he is also just not hitting the ball consistently well either.

by plh903 on Apr 20, 2007 8:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think his point was

That Pujols' BABIP is low because he's not hitting the ball hard. If all your balls in play are pop-ups and slow grounders, then you aren't going to get many hits out of them.

Pujols has hit into some hard luck, but it's not the whole story for sure.

by liam on Apr 20, 2007 8:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought so as well,

I was just expounding on that point.

by plh903 on Apr 21, 2007 1:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

while i'm at it...

also seems redundant to say the pitchers pujols has faced have put together great stat lines. sure they have, cuz 1/3 of their stats this year came against the entire STL lineup!

10-time World Champs!

by TheFranchise9 on Apr 20, 2007 1:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Also, if I remember correctly

Pujols just missed HRs in Houston (opposite field/1st inning friday), Pittsburgh (pulled down the line/9th inning Tuesday) and St. Louis (in front of bullpen/double off Hernandez).

We are talking maybe 5 feet on each of those. Add those 3 HRs into Pujols' totals and he's hitting .241 with 7 HRs, 14 RBI and a .603 SLG.

Walk your dog, not Pujols.

by Hardcore Legend on Apr 20, 2007 1:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Which begs the question....

Has Albert lost some pop??? Last year he had that extra 5 feet and then some. Therefore, he tore it up. That also brings to light exactly how amazing this guy has been and what he has meant to this team.

by Mrthe2th on Apr 20, 2007 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs