Much has been made of Dan Uggla's performance since his first season as a Brave. To say it has been a disappointment is probably an understatement, but there's no need to beat a dead horse. During spring training doctors told Uggla he was suffering from astigmatism and promptly prescribed him contact lenses. In classic male fashion, Uggla ditched the lenses after only a few days of use and began this season without them.
That didn't serve Uggla very well, and his first two months did little to inspire any hope that he would provide any value relative to his multi-million dollar contract, of which he still has two more years. Finally on June 20, Uggla buckled under the pressure of his performance, or lack thereof, and decided to get fitted for another set of contact lenses, this time with comfort being the utmost priority.
Since that day, Uggla has seemingly been an on-base machine, walking quite a bit and hitting for considerable power. However, his peripheral statistics don't suggest a substantial difference. His LD% has remained steady at ~20%, roughly league average, and his GB% has actually increased. He has eight XBHs in those 15 games since June 20, and while his OBP during that span is .330, that's well below the OBP he posted for the entire month of June (.394), meaning that the majority of that good work came before he was fitted for his new lenses. His strikeouts are down, as are his walks, but his power is up since the aforementioned date, evidenced by a 60-point increase in ISO (.215 season avg v. .274 during the time frame) and 32-point increase in wOBA (.325 season avg v. .357 during the time frame). Lastly, and perhaps tellingly, his BABIP has ballooned almost 60 points from a season avg of .264, up to .322 during the time in question. Are we seeing some regression to the mean insofar as his ability to get lucky is concerned? It seems likely. His .370 BABIP during June far eclipsed the first two months of the season, during which his BABIP hovered in the .220s. Uggla's career BABIP is .291, and his BABIP as a Brave (not including 2013) is .268, leading one to believe that the numbers posted so far this season are probably outliers.
When dealing with arbitrary beginning and end-points, a grain of salt is generally recommended. This case is no different. It's impossible to say, through 15 games, what kind of impact the contacts have had on Uggla's performance, and that's assuming that we're even aware of all the variables in play (hint: we're not). Come September, if this moment is looked upon as a turning point in his season, well, that's great. Given the data available now, that doesn't appear to be the case.
Quite frankly, the 2013 version of Uggla is probably the most productive version we've seen yet. In 2011, it was all power and a weak OBP. In 2012, the OBP was there, but the power was severely diminished. So far in 2013, he seems to be striking a productive balance between the two. Is that because of the contacts? Time will tell.
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