Who Were the Luckiest and Unluckiest MLB Hitters in June?
Hitters With an Inflated BABIP
Over the past month, a league-average MLB hitter produced a .307 BABIP to go along with a 20.6% line-drive rate (LD%), 44.3% ground-ball rate (GB%), 35.1% fly-ball rate (FB%), and a 32.7% hard-hit rate. Some of the below players can point to their speed as a reason why they popped up here, but that doesn't mean what they're doing isn't hard to sustain.
| Rank | Player | BABIP | LD% | GB% | FB% | Hard% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Gamel | .482 | 22.4% | 44.7% | 32.9% | 28.2% |
| 2 | Denard Span | .427 | 25.8% | 42.7% | 31.5% | 18.7% |
| 3 | Mallex Smith | .423 | 18.8% | 52.1% | 29.2% | 25.9% |
| 4 | Orlando Arcia | .406 | 20.0% | 57.1% | 22.9% | 25.4% |
| 5 | Austin Slater | .403 | 17.2% | 59.4% | 23.4% | 28.1% |
| 6 | Trevor Story | .393 | 22.4% | 41.4% | 36.2% | 31.0% |
| 7 | DJ LeMahieu | .387 | 21.3% | 60.6% | 18.1% | 29.5% |
| 8 | Ian Desmond | .373 | 15.4% | 66.7% | 17.9% | 25.0% |
| 9 | Elvis Andrus | .367 | 20.7% | 53.7% | 25.6% | 29.3% |
| 10 | Hunter Pence | .362 | 9.9% | 60.6% | 29.6% | 32.4% |
Are the Rockies Gonna Need Some Help?
It feels so weird because we usually never have to say this, but it sure looks like the Colorado Rockies are going to need some help on offense prior to the non-waiver trade deadline.
This is a perfect example why. Of the above 10 players, Colorado had three -- Trevor Story, DJ LeMahieu, and Ian Desmond -- outperform their batted-ball profiles by a rather substantial margin on their respective ways to unusually high BABIPs. Despite that, the Rockies finished June with a team wRC+ of just 80, which was only better than the Philadelphia Phillies.
Yea, that's not good.
Those three were a big reason behind such a poor wRC+, too. None of them posted a mark over 100 in June (93 for LeMahieu, 77 for Desmond, and 53 for Story).
No! No! No!
Hunter Pence doesn't exactly look natural when he plays baseball, but it's hard to deny that the man knows how to rally the troops. Plus, he's been a rather productive ballplayer.
Unfortunately, his performance in 2017 has been as disappointing as the San Francisco Giants' overall play. He somehow managed a .362 BABIP this past month despite the batted-ball profile you see above. Between 2007-16, Pence managed a 120 wRC+, .351 wOBA and an Isolated Power (ISO) of .186 -- all more than respectable and worthy of playing him on an every-day basis.
But through 248 plate appearances this season, those numbers have fallen to 82, .293, and .101, respectively.
Gamel Is More Than Just His Beautiful Hair
If a guy is going to outperform his peripherals, the least we can do is find someone who is benefiting from it, right? That's where Ben Gamel comes in, who has not only been a spark plug for the Seattle Mariners, but should also have a few endorsements for hair products lined up by now.
He truly started out incredibly hot -- through his first 133 plate appearances, he posted a 131 wRC+ and .362 wOBA. He can probably thank an elevated hard-hit rate (36.7%) for that, but it also helps when your line-drive rate (32.1%) is higher than your ground-ball rate (25.6%).
It seems like he's come back down to reality with regard to his batted-ball profile, but his BABIP hasn't followed suit just yet.
