Beyond the Box Score: Bendix: What’s wrong with Nick Swisher?

Dunno…but he’s led my fantasy team into the filthy logiene of thick toilet swirls.

Already this year Swisher has three fly balls to the warning track (out of 27 fly ball outs) in US Cellular Field. Last season, in McAfee Coliseum, Swisher didn’t have any fly balls caught at the warning track (out of 77 fly ball outs). Swisher has at least ten additional fly balls that have been caught on the warning track in various parks around the American League.

Swisher’s underlying stats suggest that he is not any different of a player than he has been throughout his career. He is still extremely patient, and his walk and strikeout rates are in line with his career rates. His actual BABIP is over 100 points below his expected BABIP, leading to his miserable batting average. Although he only has four homers, he has hit a lot of fly balls and has hit at least 13 balls that were caught on the warning track. Thus, it appears that Swisher has been extremely unlucky so far this year, and if he continues to play like he has thus far, his statistics will drastically improve.

Swisher is hitting the ball often, hard, and far. Soon enough, his statistics will better reflect his ability.