They hung on and won 2-1 last night (Last night for me, I live in Kenya). So Appel will pitch game 5 tomorrow against the Round Rock Express (Rangers) for the decisive game of the PCL Championship. Color me intrigued.
When you hit 370, you are going to have a BABIP over 400. He is like a career 320 hitter with a OBP well over 400 and a lot of doubles and solid BB/SO ratio.
You don't have a point. He hit around 370 in AAA. He had a career minor league average of well above 300. I don't think anyone thinks he would hit 370 in the big leagues.
Great experience for Appel, pitching the deciding game in Triple A championship. Also, good to end as we can bring Chapman, Singleton, Hoes, Straily, Obbie and Grossman
i'd put the o/u of major league innings played by those players from now till the end of the season at 1.5
would still be close. i'd say singleton pinch-hitting would be the only possibility over our current options. and if any of them were viable pinch-runners over our current options, they'd have been up there a few weeks ago.
Grossman might be viable as pinch runner, or a "we have a large roster so we pinch hit with Tucker and place Grossman in left as a late inning defensive replacement" type of move.
Or just maybe he has a high BA because of the high BABIP.. He's been lucky in AAA. You're just choosing to see it as the high AVG caused the high BABIP which is not how it works. A high BABIP causes a high AVG. The best hitter in the game (Cabrera) has roughly a .350 BABIP over the past few years. Let me explain my point more clearly then, I think it's ridiculous that people (not just you) have started clamoring for him to be called up because of the said high BA. His high OBP which I said I loved is definitely a positive I agree. If you want to replace Karter, why not Duffy? He's got the stats, can give you some defense, and he's rule 5 eligible, unlike white. But you see how they've been hesitant to use Duffy so I think it's a moot point anyway.
A high batting average for a line drive hitter who does not hit many home runs most definitely translates to a high babip. Wade Boggs 1985 babip .396. Boggs led the league with 240 hits in 161 games, 187 (77.9%) of them singles. During all his batting-title years, his BABIP was high, bottoming out at .361. Lucky? No: more like extremely good contact skills. Dee Gordon beats Cabrera's babip by a landslide at .384. Why? He doesn't hit home runs and hits a lot of infield singles. Why was Boggs' babip so high? A line drive contact hitter who rarely hit home runs and almost never struck out. Much like White has done throughout his minor league career. No...we are not saying White will be a .360 hitter over his career. We are saying the #'s clearly show that he could be a .300 hitter who gets on base....a lot. Something the Astros could use. Not so ridiculous in my opinion.
In Summary, I said it was ridiculous because people were using his inflated average to justify bringing him up. Even though he'd almost assuredly be a strictly DH at this point in time. I just think people are overvaluing him at this point because of the high BA. Dee is a completely different animal because of his speed. Not even remotely close to the same thing. Boggs is a HOF hitter not a good example but I'll play along. White hasn't routinely posted abnormally higher BABIP compared to league averages (minor leagues have higher avg. BABIP in general to begin with) . Luck does influence BABIP in any case. Yes line drive hitters and speedy guys are going to have a higher BIBIP and they are going to have higher normal for them BABIP. BABIP is also a quasi way to measure luck. If you're luckier you're going to have a better BABIP. If you have a higher BABIP you're going to have a higher average. White is the same player he was in AA and before where nobody was saying anything about him, but he's promoted to AAA and now everybody is saying call him up he has to be better than karter right? The only thing different from him in AA till now is a higher BABIP by 100 points and a higher BA by 80 points. To make my point, look at Andrew Aplin's stats for this year. Yea it's apple and oranges because of positions, but he actually plays defense. White DHs more than anything else in AAA and would likely DH in majors THIS year. Anyway they have very similar numbers beside more power for white and more speed for aplin.. All except the inflated BA of whites. Yet nobody talks about Aplin. You could say Aplin wouln't play first and that's the position of need, but I'd argue White wouldn't either. Once again, White's career OBP, BB%, SO% are all very sexy (Gomez getting to me). And if he can make a serviceable catcher (like they hope to do) he could be a great asset.
#1 Stop assuming everyone wants him called up only because of his batting average. He has a high OBP, strong BB/SO and solid extra base potential. #2 The difference between his batting average and BABIP is not far off his career average. Some players have a higher BABIP because they hit the ball hard and are like drive hitters. Paul Goldschmidt is one such example. Guess what? White has a very high percentage of hard hit balls.. So his BABIP is higher than many.
Last thing I am going to say on this. You are just wrong. Most of the highest BABIP are not speedsters, they hit hard line drives, which is exactly what White does. Harper, Cabrera, Votto and Goldshmidt all are near the top of BABIP. Does anyone to expect White to hit 370? No, of course not. However his "hard contact has gone up. Anyway enjoy your strawman.
