Marlon Byrd Hitting Ropes

Marlon Byrd's .417 BAbip heading into Saturday's action put him 14th among all batters this season with a minimum of 30 plate appearances.  Byrd has a lifetime .327 BAbip, and while there is an element of skill involved in BAbip, it tends to decline with older players.  Part of this is due to a decline in speed - older players aren't able to leg out infield singles like they could in their younger years.

For the Cubs Marlon Byrd, it's quite clear what's propping up his BAbip early in the season.

Marlon Byrd through April 8, 2011

	PA	AVG	SLUG	BABIP	HR%
Totals	31	.323	.419	.417	0.0%
Line Drive	7	.857	1.286	.857	0.0%
Fly Ball	3	.000	.000	.000	0.0%
Ground Ball	12	.333	.333	.333	0.0%
Pop Up	2	.000	.000	.000	0.0%

Six of Byrd's line drives in play have resulted in hits so far this season. Compared to his previous three year average, Byrd has been a little lucky so far this season.

Marlon Byrd 2008-10

	PA	AVG	SLUG	BABIP	HR%
Totals	1691	.291	.456	.324	2.7%
Line Drive	258	.758	1.043	.749	1.2%
Fly Ball	362	.269	.723	.170	11.1%
Ground Ball	600	.252	.283	.252	0.0%
Pop Up	65	.092	.108	.092	0.0%

I guess what's most surprising, if anything could be labeled as such this early, is that Byrd has hit more line drives than fly balls so far. Although it's always important to note that line drives are subjective calls and interpretation varies depending on the scorer. Lastly, compared to his previous three seasons, Byrd has been somewhat lucky on his ground balls so far. Expect his overall BAbip to regress in the coming months as his averages on ground balls and line drives come back down a bit.

Update on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 11:30PM by Jonathan Scippa

Looks like Byrd grounded out twice today, which will drop his groundball average a bit.  But he also got his first hit on a fly ball this season in the first inning, which given the weakness of the hit, was certainly a product of luck.