Life In The Cell

Oh, Captain, My Captain

Last night the Sox pounded the Baltimore Orioles 8-3. The Sox racked up bunch of extra base hits, with Paul Konerko contributing 2 doubles. This led me to the hypothesis that Paulie has actually been hitting at a healthy clip as of late. So let’s take a look at the stats! In August, he’s hitting a Quentin-esque .321/.487/.554/1.041, hell, that’s almost Pujolsian.

It’s quite possible that the arrival of Ken Griffey Junior was the kick in the ass that Paulie needed to get going. That hot streak coincides nicely with his arrival, but there just may be some other factors at play. During that time span, he has a .326 BABIP, which means there’s some luck involved…unless of course, Griffey in all his awesomeness is the real reason for the uptick in luck. If we look back further in the season, to June 6, which is the day after his batting average hit rock bottom at .199 (that is, rock bottom after the month of April), he’s hit a solid .271/,375/.439/.814. (Looking back at this, that date doesn’t seem right at all, but keep in mind that he was out June 14-July 8). This is right in line with his career averages of .277/.352/.488/.840. So as much as we’ve all maligned Paulie, he’s been doing pretty okay since June. We can’t even say it was a flukish run, as his BABIP in that time span was .300 which is around his career BABIP of .282.

There is a precedent of Paulie keeping up a long running hot streak like this. In 2003, a season which sorta mirrors this year, if you allow me to cherry pick dates, he hit .325/.388/.602/.990 from July 8-Sept 12 with a .309 BABIP. He did slump considerably to close out the season though, putting up the laughable line of .054/.125/.054/.179. Granted, it was a 10-game span, but the Sox can ill-afford such a span if the Twins plan on sticking around til the very end of the season.

Will Paulie continue to hit like it’s 2006 or will he falter and turn back into the baseball equivalent of Eeyore? If history is an indicator, he has the ability to ride this wave through the end of the season; I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.