Stats

There is always a good deal of popularity factors in All-Star voting. That doesn't mean we have to like it. Knowing how something happens doesn't make it better. 

Derek Jeter is loved. What's more, he's loved by a fan base that dwarfs most, that of the New York Yankees. So this is the answer to the question, "Why is Derek Jeter 100,000 points ahead of Marco Scutaro in the All-Star balloting?" Here's why that answer doesn't cut the mustard.

The Chicago Cubs' offense has been called a lot of things over the past few months—scary, awful, woeful, and laughable. When looking at the statistics, people may be missing one word from the Cubs 2009 batting performance:

Historic.

Heading into Friday's tilt with the cross-town rival White Sox, the Cubs, as a team, were hitting .212—that's a tabulation of every Cubs player that has had a single at-bat this year, including the ghost of Cubs' past, Aramis Ramirez.

If you've read my first two articles, "The Stolen Base: A Lost Art. Will we ever see a 100 Steal Man Again?" and "Gimmie Five!

After a week or so of below-average baseball, the Cardinals still find themselves in second place of the NL Central.

The A.L. Central, like its Western-division brethren and the entire National League, is full of bad teams. The division’s first-place Detroit Tigers enter Tuesday’s games with a run differential that would rank fifth in the A.L. East.

The Minnesota Twins, meanwhile, have ridden Joe Mauer’s Ted Williams impression and a pitching staff that has decided against issuing walks this season into second place, a mere three games out, and are the only other team in the division to have outscored its opponents thus far.

There is a certain amount of luck in Major League Baseball, those aspects of the game that are really very much out of the players’ hands.

Some people believe that batting average per balls in play is one of such statistics. With that said, I will examine the top and bottom five batters in terms of their BABIP, recap how they got to where they are, point out the things that will bring them up or down to normal, and show you that luck has very little to do with it.

1. David Wright, New York Mets

Mike and Mike in the Morning had a discussion on Tuesday about which sports franchise was the greatest dynasty in professional sports.

They obviously included the Yankees with their 26 World Championships, but the argument for them boiled down to the Yankees or the Los Angeles Lakers.

There may not be a bigger sense of anticipation when a young phenom is set to make his mark on the Major Leagues. From the time a fresh 19-year old is drafted out of High School, to the time he enters Triple-A, and finally to the time he is called up to the big team. When a guy like Evan Longoria or Mike Piazza start making waves in the Minor Leagues, it's only a matter of time until they storm the Bastille that is Major League Baseball.

More often than not, these young kids will automatically be mentioned in the Rookie of the Year balloting.

For many years, Brooklyn's National League team was considered one the game's best power-hitting units.

There was one season of interest in which they led the league in home runs, and their first baseman was the home run champion by a wide margin.

Brooklyn's Power Dominated

Brooklyn was dominant. The team home run total was 12 percent greater than that of the runner-up. Their home run champion led the second place finisher by 20 percent.

Don Mattingly was named hitting coach in 2007 and took on the task of transforming an impatient Dodger team into a more disciplined offensive ball club.

While there has been a lot of focus, and rightfully so, put on the impact of Manny Ramirez’s arrival last season, Mattingly becoming hitting coach was a major factor that turned things around in Los Angeles.