I had a lot of difficulty trying to post the "WE GON' HIT" blog entry, so I left some analysis and some data for this fanpost.

Here is the table of BABIPs for each team in the league.

In the blog entry, I noted the low correlation between 2007 and 2008 BABIPs as an argument that hitters don't have enough control over it to justify an argument that the Phillies BABIP was .279 due to ability, and instead suggest that it was largely bad luck.

Also in the blog entry, I wrote some brief notes on each player's numbers.  Here is some more detail on those player notes.

Rollins clearly has suffered a power outage this year.  Since the all-star break, his groundball rate has risen; problematic as his BABIP on groundballs is .181.  Given how fast Rollins is, he should not be as far below the league average of .228 on groundballs as he is.  As his infield hit percentage remains about 5.5 as it has throughout his career, it seems pretty clear that Rollins should expect a few more balls to find their way between defenders.

While Victorino’s discipline is clearly not as good since the break as it was before, he is starting to hit for some power.  His BABIP remains around league average despite a higher line drive rate.

Since the all-star break, Utley has been walking less and striking out more.  That’s not a good sign.  His low BABIP was causing a low batting average, and I would guess that he is making some adjustments that are more hurtful than helpful.  Unfortunately, they seem to be reinforcing his low batting average.  Utley’s low BABIP was primarily caused by his low BABIP on line-drives.  While .725 is actually above the league average, his BABIP on line drives has been .811, .860, and .795 in 2005-07.

Howard’s line-drive rate has shot up from 20.0% to 21.8% in just 28 games.  To do that, he probably has a line-drive rate of nearly 30% since play resumed, yet his BABIP still remains low.  His BABIPs on line drives in play in 2005-07 have been .822, .795, and .750.  This year, it is down to .702.  It seems like Howard should expect some improvement there.  Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus was quoted in delawareonline.com about Howard and referred to him as “an average first basemen”.  http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080819/SPORTS01/808190369/1002/SPORTS

I have a hard time believing that.  While Howard’s lower walk rate this year certainly is a bad sign, he is simply not a .230 hitter by skill.  In only 38 games, I doubt he can improve it all that much, but look for a .270-.280 hitter from now until the end.

Burrell is similar to Utley in that I believe he is trying to make adjustments and they are hurting more than helping.  He is swinging earlier in the count, as evidenced by his lower walk rate and strikeout rate.  As a result, his groundball rate has gone up since the break, and his BABIP has gone back down below his career average.  Even if he doesn’t keep up what he was doing, his BABIP is .242 BABIP since the break.  That’s easily improved upon even if he continues with his unfortunate groundball hitting ways.

Geoff Jenkins numbers look identical to those before break, except groundballs have been replacing fly balls.  I wouldn’t necessarily expect this to lead to a higher BABIP, though, as I think Jenkins is flailing, trying to think up adjustments as his body ages underneath him.

Pedro Feliz actually was playing a bit better as a Phillie before the break than he had over the course of his career.  However, either regression to his mean or a bad back pushed his numbers back down since then.  He returns Wednesday, and it remains to be seen whether he will be the good bad Pedro we have seen this year or the bad bad Pedro during whose at-bats we relaxed when he was a Giant.

Carlos Ruiz’s atrocious numbers have improved since the break.  This is a good example of what I was writing about before and what I expect to happen with guys like Rollins, Utley, Howard, and Burrell.  His preposterous .227 BABIP was due to rise even if he continued with his 55% groundball rate.  Carlos is doing something very wrong at the plate to suddenly be grounding out over and over again like this.  Still, expect Carlos to continue to progress further away from the Mendoza line despite a problem with his swing and approach.

Jayson Werth still has a very high line drive rate that has propelled his career BABIP up to .336.  Despite maintaining a similarly high line drive rate this year, his BABIP is still quite low.  I expect an improvement from him as well.

Coste is performing about as expected, but clearly has lost some plate discipline since the break.  He’s not suffering much for it yet, though.

Bruntlett’s preposterous .247 BABIP is unsustainably low.  I trust him to continue being bad at baseball and yet put up better numbers anyway.  Even with Bruntlett’s fly balls staying in the infield a silly 19.6% of the time, he should not be hitting .039 on flyballs.  And .655 on line-drives does seem a bit low, though it isn’t much lower than last year.

I wouldn’t hold your breath on Taguchi though.  His numbers look like that of an old man. 

Dobbs’ BABIP has come back down as expected, but all of a sudden he’s hitting homeruns.  There’s still no reason why he should be hitting .906 on line drives, and he should continue coming down to earth on the BABIP front.

Here are the two tables included in the blog entry in case it's easier to read here rather than keep checking back.