Under the Radar Keppinger

Throw on your guessing caps and then write down the top five in batter BB/K ratio this season. Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer are layups. Aubrey Huff is a shocker and Daric Barton is the black beauty amongst the group, but none of those four leads the league. Nope, that honor goes to Jeff Keppinger as the 30-year-old’s 1.38 ratio nary edges out Pujols’ 1.30.

Keppinger’s wOBA is at .331, above league average, and he should very well surpass his previous career best – an insane 2.2 figure from 2007 that he racked up in 276 plate appearances. Not too bad for someone whose career transactions include being traded in the Kris Benson to New York deal as well as in separate deals for Ruben Gotay, Russ Haltiwanger, and Drew Sutton.

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve become so prone to looking at walk rates and isolated slugging ability that we forget about contact skills entirely. Not that one group of players has more value than the other on a wide-scale basis, obviously, it varies case-by-case, but a guy like Keppinger is flying under the radar because he doesn’t hit for much power nor does he get on base an insane amount of time. He does make a lot of contact, though, and that is a good attribute to have.

Keppinger also has one of the more, uh, interesting and vulgar sponsorships going at Baseball-Reference. Really, just check it out for yourself. Keppinger brings out the passion in folks.