Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Considering Bubba Starling hit .183 with 7 HR at AA and AAA last year, no, no he couldn't.
Your hang up on batting average is silly. It's also worth noting Soler is a .260 career hitter through 700 MLB at bats. So focusing in on his 2016 BA, in a small sample with injuries also affecting him, is even sillier.
If he continues to OBP 70 points higher than his batting average, (and he did make progress here in 2016, OBPing nearly 100 points higher), he can hit .240-.250 and still be a plus offensive player.
If he can hit .260 while maintaining his OBP gains, that's a .350 or better OBP, and that's above-average.
BA is not to be ignored, but it shouldn't be focused on at the expense of OBP and SLG...
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You're being diplomatic.
For a guy who's primary offensive function is power - BA
can pretty well be ignored. If you really care about what it suggests, just look at K% instead. You could look at Soler's baseball card and learn all you need to learn without ever looking at his batting average - it just doesn't matter.
Like I said, the inverse relationship between fly balls and batting average makes a high BA something that could actually HURT a player like Soler. That's just not his game.
That said, I understand why Royals fans are annoyed by him. The Royals have defied every 'three true outcomes' model there is to defy over the last 3 seasons so some of their fans seemed to have forgotten about some of the developments in that area. But the bottom line is that BA is still a shit way to measure a players offensive contributions.