Aramis Ramirez: Tale Of Two Seasons

Did you know that Aramis Ramirez leads all qualified major leaguers in wOBA during the month of July? I didn't think so. Who could have guessed that someone who was so cold during the first two months of the season could be so hot lately, especially after many sports writers and analysts wrote him off during that ugly start to the season?

March/April: .152/.216/.283, .223 wOBA

May: .173/.241/.253, .221 wOBA

June: .265/.342/.471, .358 wOBA

July: .369/.400/.892, .530 wOBA

2010: .226/.283/.447, .313wOBA

Looking at the numbers there is no doubt that Ramirez was very unlucky to start the season. His xAVG's for the first three months are .217, .213 and .311 respectively. His 2010 BABIP is .222 for groundballs and .085 for flyballs, both very low figures. Simply put the balls that he made contact with were just not going for hits.

However, even taking into account his bad luck, Ramirez still performed horribly in the first two months of the season. His strikeout rates of 26.1% and 25.3% were over 10% higher than his career rate of 15.5% and his LD% of 14.3% and 15.8% were also below Ramirez's normal averages. Furthermore his HR/FB% was extremely low which, coupled with the low line drive rates, points to the fact that Ramirez just wasn't hitting the ball well at all during the first two months of the season

Things have picked up for Ramirez recently. His .358 wOBA in June matches up with his career average and he has been crushing the ball in July to the tune of a .353 xAVG and .523 ISO. No, of course he is not THIS good, but with these last two months he has definitely made the Cubs decision on his 2011 club option very interesting. There's no telling if the first two months of the season were due to a decrease in his skill level due to aging or an injury or just plain bad luck but I believe the next two months will help define Ramirez season and will guide the Cubs decision on what to do with him in the future.