2011 Leaders and Trailers in BABiP (Batting Average on Balls in Play)

Just out of curiosity I wanted to look at BABiP leaders and trailers (among both hitters and pitchers) in 2011.


Here are the batters who qualified for the batting title and had the highest BABiP:

Rk	Player	BAbip	Tm	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Matt Kemp	.380	LAD	689	602	195	33	4	39	74	159	.324	.399	.586	.986	*8/D
2	Adrian Gonzalez	.380	BOS	715	630	213	45	3	27	74	119	.338	.410	.548	.957	*3/D9
3	Emilio Bonifacio	.372	FLA	641	565	167	26	7	5	59	129	.296	.360	.393	.753	65789/4
4	Michael Bourn	.369	TOT	722	656	193	34	10	2	53	140	.294	.349	.386	.734	*8
5	Michael Young	.367	TEX	689	631	213	41	6	11	47	78	.338	.380	.474	.854	D534/6
6	Alex Avila	.366	DET	551	464	137	33	4	19	73	131	.295	.389	.506	.895	*2/D5
7	Miguel Cabrera	.365	DET	688	572	197	48	0	30	108	89	.344	.448	.586	1.033	*3/D
8	Hunter Pence	.361	TOT	668	606	190	38	5	22	56	124	.314	.370	.502	.871	*9
9	Alex Gordon	.358	KCR	688	611	185	45	4	23	67	139	.303	.376	.502	.879	*7/3
10	Dexter Fowler	.354	COL	563	481	128	35	15	5	68	130	.266	.363	.432	.796	*8

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/15/2011.

I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this sort of data. For a guy like Adrian Gonzalez, who batted .338, it entirely makes sense that his batting average was .380 on balls in play. But then again, his career BABiP before last year was .310 and his career batting average was .284. So did his BA go up this year because his BABiP went up, or did his BABiP go up because his BA went up? In other words, did he actually produce a lot more hits due to improved ability and/or hitting in Fenway Park, and hence his BABiP went up, or did he have a lucky year with line drives falling in, and thus his BABip was randomly higher, resulting in a much higher batting average?

Then look at Dexter Fowler, whose BABiP of .354 was nearly 90 points higher than his batting average. What exactly does that mean? I'm guessing it means he got on base a lot on balls put in play, thanks mainly to his speed, but in general made a lot of other outs (mainly strikeouts).

Here are the lowest BABiP values for qualifying players:

Rk	Player	BAbip	Tm	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Vernon Wells	.214	LAA	529	505	110	15	4	25	20	86	.218	.248	.412	.660	*789/D
2	Alexis Rios	.237	CHW	570	537	122	22	2	13	27	68	.227	.265	.348	.613	*8/D
3	Mark Teixeira	.239	NYY	684	589	146	26	1	39	76	110	.248	.341	.494	.835	*3/D
4	Evan Longoria	.239	TBR	574	483	118	26	1	31	80	93	.244	.355	.495	.850	*5/D
5	Ian Kinsler	.243	TEX	723	620	158	34	4	32	89	71	.255	.355	.477	.832	*4D
6	Kurt Suzuki	.244	OAK	515	460	109	26	0	14	38	64	.237	.301	.385	.686	*2/D
7	Casey McGehee	.249	MIL	600	546	122	24	2	13	45	104	.223	.280	.346	.626	*5/3D
8	Dan Uggla	.253	ATL	672	600	140	22	1	36	62	156	.233	.311	.453	.764	*4
9	Yuniesky Betancourt	.259	MIL	584	556	140	27	3	13	16	63	.252	.271	.381	.652	*6
10	Carlos Santana	.263	CLE	658	552	132	35	2	27	97	133	.239	.351	.457	.808	*23/D

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/15/2011.

Well, that's a who's who of disappointing players in 2011. Again we have the same question--do they have low BABiPs because they hit poorly this year, or did they have poor years because their BABiPs just happened to be really low?

Here are the highest BABiP values among pitchers who qualified for the ERA title:

Rk	Player	BAbip	Tm	GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	ERA+	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1	Edwin Jackson	.338	TOT	31	199.2	225	92	84	62	148	3.79	106	.290	.342	.427	.768	111
2	Ricky Nolasco	.337	FLA	33	206.0	244	117	107	44	148	4.67	84	.295	.331	.440	.770	114
3	Derek Lowe	.332	ATL	34	187.0	212	110	105	70	137	5.05	75	.285	.347	.406	.754	113
4	Ryan Dempster	.331	CHC	34	202.1	211	111	108	82	191	4.80	81	.271	.343	.445	.788	119
5	Madison Bumgarner	.329	SFG	33	204.2	202	82	73	46	191	3.21	111	.260	.304	.366	.670	92
6	Charlie Morton	.327	PIT	29	171.2	186	82	73	77	110	3.83	100	.281	.365	.372	.737	110
7	Jaime Garcia	.324	STL	32	194.2	207	100	77	50	156	3.56	102	.273	.317	.394	.711	103
8	Zack Greinke	.323	MIL	28	171.2	161	82	73	45	201	3.83	102	.245	.297	.412	.708	95
9	CC Sabathia	.322	NYY	33	237.1	230	87	79	61	230	3.00	147	.255	.305	.361	.666	75
10	Jeff Francis	.319	KCR	31	183.0	224	102	98	39	91	4.82	85	.301	.337	.457	.794	116

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/15/2011.

One of these things is not like the other, and that would be CC Sabathia. Despite allowing a high BABiP, his actual BA against was low, as was his OPS+. Most of these other guys just got hit hard.

And here are the lowest BABiP against in 2011:

Rk	Player	BAbip	Tm	G	GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	ERA+	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1	Jeremy Hellickson	.224	TBR	29	29	189.0	146	64	62	72	117	2.95	126	.210	.287	.373	.660	87
2	Justin Verlander	.237	DET	34	34	251.0	174	73	67	57	250	2.40	170	.192	.242	.313	.555	51
3	Ricky Romero	.245	TOR	32	32	225.0	176	85	73	80	178	2.92	146	.216	.296	.365	.662	77
4	Josh Beckett	.249	BOS	30	30	193.0	146	65	62	52	175	2.89	147	.211	.273	.335	.608	62
5	Jered Weaver	.252	LAA	33	33	235.2	182	65	63	56	198	2.41	158	.212	.262	.336	.598	68
6	Josh Tomlin	.254	CLE	26	26	165.1	157	80	78	21	89	4.25	93	.248	.274	.438	.712	96
7	Cole Hamels	.259	PHI	32	31	216.0	169	68	67	44	194	2.79	138	.214	.259	.337	.596	65
8	James Shields	.260	TBR	33	33	249.1	195	83	78	65	225	2.82	132	.217	.273	.350	.623	76
9	Michael Pineda	.261	SEA	28	28	171.0	133	76	71	55	173	3.74	103	.211	.279	.342	.621	76
10	Shaun Marcum	.264	MIL	33	33	200.2	175	84	79	57	158	3.54	110	.232	.284	.372	.656	81
11	Jhoulys Chacin	.264	COL	31	31	194.0	168	87	78	87	150	3.62	124	.231	.315	.392	.707	86

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/15/2011.

Again, one guy sticks out: Josh Tomlin. He is the only one with an ERA+ below 100 and an OPS+ approaching 100. The rest of these guys were all good-to-great pitchers in 2011--and again one wonders whether it was their pitching that led to the low BABiP, or the low BABiP that led to good pitching numbers.