BABIP, the old wisdom holds, is not something that is indicative of a hitter’s skill. For the uninitiated, BABIP stands for Batting Average on Balls In Play. It stands to reason that, once a play is put into play, there are a myriad of factors outside of a hitter’s control that lead to the result of the play being either a hit or an out.
There are exceptions, of course. Ichiro’s speed could cause nearly any ground ball to the left side of the infield strike terror in the hearts of the defenders. Edgar Martínez, on the other hand, was just a really, really good hitter.