Friday, June 18, 2004
THT Leaderboard: BABIP and LD%
Posted by Dave StudemanStats and graphs have been updated, through games of June 17. We've added a couple of new stats, including BABIP for batters. That's Batting Average On Balls In Play. It's a measure of how many batted balls (so it excludes strikeouts) have fallen in for hits, not including home runs.
Because we also collect the percent of batted balls that are line drives (LD%), it is interesting to compare the two. Ideally, BABIP should rise with LD%, and vice versa. So here's a top ten list of major league hitters whose BABIP most exceeds their LD%.
Player LD% BABIP Diff Harvey K. .163 .405 .242 DaVanon J. .149 .370 .221 Sanchez A. .184 .399 .215 Stairs M. .094 .305 .211 Everett A. .119 .327 .207 Overbay L. .216 .421 .206 Mora M. .186 .391 .204 Grieve B. .130 .333 .203 Nix L. .157 .359 .202 Ramirez M. .181 .373 .192Alex Sanchez is helped by his bunting ability, but the rest of these guys may be in for a bit of a fall. Here are the batters whose BABIP least exceeds their LD%:
Player LD% BABIP Diff Polanco P. .252 .258 .006 Jones C. .176 .204 .028 Delgado C. .226 .258 .032 Phillips J. .176 .215 .039 Wilkerson B .217 .260 .044 Spiezio S. .197 .246 .049 Palmeiro R. .200 .251 .051 Kennedy A. .223 .276 .053 Munson E. .189 .243 .054 Rollins J. .243 .297 .054Oy. Poor Placido Polanco, the unluckiest batter in the major leagues this year.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.