Hitters Due To Decline In 2012
Getting lucky may be a strong term, but the average BABIP (batting average on balls in play) for hitters last season was .295. If you’re talking about players who were 60-80 points above that number last season, conventional wisdom would say those players are due to slip back to the pack a little bit in 2012. Here are the 10 players with the highest BABIP last season.
| Luckiest Players- BABIP | |||
| Players | Plate Appearances | Slash Line | BABIP |
| Matt Kemp, OF, LAD | 689 | .324/.399/.586 | 0.380 |
| Adrian Gonzalez, 1B, BOS | 715 | .338/.410/.548 | 0.380 |
| Emilio Bonifacio, IF/OF, MIA | 641 | .296/.360/.393 | 0.372 |
| Michael Bourn, OF, ATL | 722 | .294/.349/.386 | 0.369 |
| Michael Young, IF, TEX | 689 | .338/.380/.474 | 0.367 |
| Alex Avila, C, DET | 551 | .295/.389/.506 | 0.366 |
| Miguel Cabrera, 3B, DET | 688 | .344/.448/.586 | 0.365 |
| Hunter Pence, OF, PHI | 668 | .314/.370/.502 | 0.361 |
| Alex Gordon, OF, KC | 690 | .303/.376/.502 | 0.358 |
| Dexter Fowler, OF, COL | 563 | .266/.343/.432 | 0.354 |
The high BABIP’s will probably not greatly impact players like Kemp, Gonzalez and Cabrera, but watch out for some players who are trendy picks in this year’s fantasy drafts. People are really high on Bonifacio and Gordon this year, but I don’t see them coming close to what they did last season based on their over-inflated BABIP’s. Bonifacio is in a very strong Marlins lineup, but it’s hard to see him thrive this season.
Colorado is really relying on Fowler to set the table this season for guys like Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and new addition Michael Cuddyer, but he probably won’t have the same results in 2012. Expect guys like Young, Pence and Avila to have a slight down-tick in production this season. So keep that in mind as we get towards Opening Day,
