It’s interesting to look back at Mike Schmidt’s final season with what we know now. For example, in his final 18 games, he hit .088/.229/.088. That’s a brutal line. But he also had a .093 BABIP. How many well-hit balls were hit into gloves? How many grounders didn’t make it through the infield? We don’t know, but we know a .093 BABIP is ridiculously low and very likely to regress to a more typical level.
That final season, Schmidt hit .203/.297/.372, with a .188 BABIP. His career mark was .280. His previous season-low BABIP was .236. The season before his final season, it was .249. If he had simply replicated his .249 BABIP in 1989, adding in singles to make the jump from .188 to .249, his overall line would have been .257/.343/.453, which would have been well above average.
I will never forget that day. I had been home in Nashville on summer break from Villanova. When I left school, everything seemed fine. I was watching the Bulls play-off game and Tim O'Brien gave a teaser that the Phillies had called a 5:00 press conference where it was expected that Schmidt was retiring. Talk about shock! He was a centerpiece of my childhood.
It’s interesting to look back at Mike Schmidt’s final season with what we know now. For example, in his final 18 games, he hit .088/.229/.088. That’s a brutal line. But he also had a .093 BABIP. How many well-hit balls were hit into gloves? How many grounders didn’t make it through the infield? We don’t know, but we know a .093 BABIP is ridiculously low and very likely to regress to a more typical level.
That final season, Schmidt hit .203/.297/.372, with a .188 BABIP. His career mark was .280. His previous season-low BABIP was .236. The season before his final season, it was .249. If he had simply replicated his .249 BABIP in 1989, adding in singles to make the jump from .188 to .249, his overall line would have been .257/.343/.453, which would have been well above average.
I will never forget that day. I had been home in Nashville on summer break from Villanova. When I left school, everything seemed fine. I was watching the Bulls play-off game and Tim O'Brien gave a teaser that the Phillies had called a 5:00 press conference where it was expected that Schmidt was retiring. Talk about shock! He was a centerpiece of my childhood.