Luis Arraez Is The Best Chance We Have At A .400 Hitter This Season

The Marlins have been around for over 30 seasons and this is the first cycle in team history? I was astonished to see that. I am not, however, astonished to see that it was Luis Arraez who did it. He might be the best contact hitter in all of baseball.

I'm not sure if Hubbs is right but I will say if anyone is going to do it, it'll be Arraez. He did win a batting title in the American League with the Twins last year. Now, it's fair to point out he only hit .316. That's a far drive from hitting .400. Just a reminder, no one has hit .400 since this guy 72 years ago.

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So why are we we even discussing .400? The big difference from last year is the shift is gone. That's only going to increase averages. Does it mean guys will hit 84 points higher simply because of that? Most likely not but Arraez has a few things that give him a legitimate chance.

He's only 26 and has plenty of time to improve at the MLB level. He's also always been a great contact hitter. His lifetime average is .320. Now, the knock on him is that he doesn't walk enough and that's a fair point. But it helps him in any quest for .400. The last hitter to give .400 a real run was Tony Gwynn who was hitting .394 when the strike hit in 1994. Gwynn was another guy who like Arraez, wasn't waiting for a walk.

On the other end is Ted Williams who was maybe the best ever at waiting for his pitch. He was also a unicorn so any comparisons to anyone (other than Barry Bonds) is probably a waste of time. I do believe Arraez's philosophy of attacking nearly every pitch to get a hit is the best path to hitting for a higher average. The National League batting average leader last year Jeff McNeil has a similar approach.

They are panicking because the Marlins stink. They were shitty in 2021, shitty again in 2022 and will be shitty this year. While that sucks for Marlins fans, I think it helps Arraez's chase for .400. A lousy team with nothing to play for September will make a historic run the highest priority. They can adjust lineups as needed and do whatever they can to put Arraez in the best possible position to succeed without worrying about having to make the playoffs.

I am sure some people are reading this and think I'm wildly overreacting because he hit for the cycle last night and is off to a great start. Will Arraez hit .400 this year? Probably not. It's really fucking hard. There's a reason it hasn't been done in over 70 years. But he's not just the guy with the best shot this year. Luis Arraez is the guy with the best shot to hit .400 in a long time.