Today's Fantasy Rx

For reference, here are the tables from Wednesday's column:

AL	BB:K	BB/9	CT%	SB%	BA/OBP/SLG
2000	.61	.11	.82	69%	.276/.349/.443
2001	.50	.09	.81	71%	.267/.344/.428
2002	.51	.09	.82	68%	.264/.329/.424
2003	.52	.09	.82	70%	.267/.333/.428

NL	BB:K	BB/9	CT%	SB%	BA/OBP/SLG
2000	.56	.11	.80	69%	.266/.342/.432
2001	.48	.10	.80	66%	.261/.331/.425
2002	.52	.10	.80	68%	.259/.328/.410
2003	.51	.10	.81	69%	.262/.332/.417

AL	AB	R	HR	RBI	SB
2000	78547	11995	2688	11418	1297
2001	78164	11013	2506	10508	1647
2002	77788	10892	2464	10271	1236
2003	78311	11033	2499	10505	1279

NL	AB	R	HR	RBI	SB
2000	88743	12976	3005	12317	1626
2001	88100	12186	2952	11580	1456
2002	87794	11516	2595	10961	1514
2003	88426	11945	2708	11381	1293

Batting Average

Both leagues rebounded after falling to unusually low levels a year ago as the AL headed back over .265 and the NL crested above .260. The generally improved plate discipline in both leagues from 2002 helped most hitters to across-the-board average gains.

The top AL hitters dropped a couple dozen points of BA as no one finished above Bill Mueller's .326 BA even though Manny, Mike Sweeney, and Bernie Williams all exceeded that average last season. However eighteen American Leaguers finished the year with a .300 BA, only one fewer player than reached the level in 2002. Of course, Mueller, Sweeney, and Derek Jeter finished within two points of each other in a race that wasn't decided until the final Sunday in September. Moving down the list to the .267 league BA and below, we observe the following breakdown of the 81 hitters who qualified for the BA championship:

BA		# of Players
.330+			0
.320-.329		3(B.Mueller, M.Ramirez, & D.Jeter)
.310-.319		6
.300-.309		9
.290-.299		12
.280-.289		9
.270-.279		11
.268-.269		4
.267		1(Frank Thomas)
.260-.266		6
.250-.259		11
.240-.249		5
.239-		4(Jos.Valentin, T.Batista, Higginson, & Ra.Santiago)

After the total number of qualifying players dropped from 75 in 2001 to 70 last year, I didn't expect to see an additional 11 batters qualify for the BA title this season. A comparison of the last three years of data provides us a better perspective for analyzation, and I'll also add the .264 league BA from 2002; no additional category is necessary for the 2001 league BA as American Leaguers averaged a .267 BA in both 2001 and 2003.

Today's Fantasy Rx: My predictions for today's games(all times CDT):

3:00 on ESPN2: San Francisco@Florida
7:00 on ESPN: Atlanta@Chicago Cubs