MLB Dirt

Omar Infante suffered a broken middle finger last Thursday night and was placed on the 15 Day DL. This came at a very poor time as Infante was finally putting things together for the Marlins and was one of the hottest players in baseball.

Infante started off the season very poorly, hitting .238 in March and April. He improved a little bit in May by hitting .262. The progress didn’t stop there as he hit .272 in June but things really started to take off for him post all-star break. In the first half he hit a disappointing .251 but in the second half he has hit .411 in 82 plate appearances. If we take a look at players with at least 50 at-bats post all-star break, Infante’s average ranks 4^th in the majors. He has also put together one of the best OBP in the second half (.469). Over his last 10 games prior to the injury, he was hitting .450 with 2 homeruns.

This kind of performance wasn’t of any kind of surprise as Infante had hit above .300 in his past two seasons. The reason for Infante turning it around might have just been a change in luck. His BABIP in the first half was .274, and in the second half it jumped up to .444. His line drive, groundball, and fly ball percentages didn’t change too much so it looks like Infante’s balls in play were just finding the right gaps.

The injury doesn’t look too serious for Infante as he looks to be back in the lineup as soon as he is eligible to be activated off of the disabled list which is August 20^th. We will see if Infante can keep this production up and end the season on a high note.

Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis Tagged: | Florida Marlins, Omar Infante