Hunter Golden gives Red Sox fans some hope with regard to Middlebrooks’ recent struggles:
> What’s more is that even if his plate approach doesn’t improve all that much in coming weeks and months, his low BABIP still won’t hold because his raw skill set and Home Park probably won’t allow it to. While it’s true that Middlebrooks had a high BABIP last year, it’s also true that he has a high BABIP every year. In fact, most batters who hit the ball harder tend to maintain consistently higher BABIP’s than their peers and while Middlebrooks may be lacking in some areas, power certainly isn’t one of them. Even though he’s not the most fleet of foot (running is almost always a strong indicator of someone who’ll sustain a higher than normal BABIP), he has the power to hit a lot of line drives. With the added benefit of the green monster, he should not only turn his luck around in the short term, but sustain his usually BABIP heading forward, as well.
I am crossing my fingers that he is right.