Carlos Quentin returned to action Tuesday night after battling stomach issues (ie. shitting constantly from food poisoning) for three days and proceeded to go 3-for-4 with a couple rib-eyes. Quentin’s batting average now sits exactly at the Mendoza line and there’s no better time to acquire the 27-year old righty.
Carlos Quentin has an all-world combination of skills that almost brought home the 2008 MVP award prior to an injury and he’s just starting to enter his hitting prime. Quentin’s poor batting average isn’t completely explained by his .180 BABIP, as his Swing-and-Miss percentage is up, but Quentin’s remained patient enough. Despite his paltry batting average, Quentin’s still managing to get on-base at a .308 clip which has put him in position to score 20 Runs on the season.
The only major difference between 2010 and 2008 for Carlos Quentin seems to be the percent of pitches that he’s seeing inside of the zone. Many of the contact-rate statistics have declined a percent or two but appear to be in line with career averages. With that said, the White Sox as a club have been pretty terrible with only Alex Rios batting over .265.
The White Sox are filled with free-swingers and at some point, they’ll eventually begin to click — at least to the point where the .200 hitters become .250 hitters. I’m not exactly sure how to recommend Quentin other than to say it’s a gut feeling. The walk-rate has kept Quentin afloat until now and even just a .260 batting average shoots his on-base percentage up to .390.
The White Sox just can’t be this bad — As a team, their BABIP is .238, the worst by a very wide margin.
