Maize&blue21 said:
that awful 2011 also has to do with a incredibly low BABIP. averages in the .335 range before this season, it was .275 last season.
A couple of things about BAbip. Normally, most players' BAbip is roughly 30-35 points higher than their actual BAVG. Ramirez is career .306 BAVG with a .339 BAbip.
Now, in 2011, Ramirez batted .243 BAVG with a .275 BAbip. This is entirely within the range one would expect.
Now, great hitters generally have a lower BAbip then their actual BAVG. Pujols' career BAVG = .328 with a .311 BAbip. In 2011, Pujols' BAVG was .299 with a .277 BAbip. Again, the lower the difference between BAbip and BAVG the better.
In 2010, Austin Jackson had a .293 BAVG with a .396 BAbip. That 103 point difference is unsustainable. So, most sabermatics predicted a drop for Jackson in 2011 and this drop did occurr. Yet, his 2011 BAVG was .249 with a BAbip of .340. This is still 91 points. There isn't any players I know of whose BAbip is greater than 75 points from their career BAVG.
BAbip is a useful stat in most cases as to predicting future success. However, it is seriously flawed and IS NOT a be all, end all stat when evaluating players.