August 26, 2006
Halfway to DiMaggio
Willy Taveras picked up three more hits last night to extend his hit streak to 28 games. He's the last person with a chance of breaking DiMaggio's hit streak record this year. Taveras' batting record, with a low OBA relative to his batting average, makes him the type of player likely to go on a long hit streak. With a low number of walks, Taveras gets more ball put into play, so there's more of a chance that any one plate appearance ends in a hit. DiMaggio was like this relative to Ted Williams. Ted was the better offensive players, but Joe was more likely to get a hit when he came to the plate. That's why Joe holds the hit streak record, but Ted holds the mark for consecutive games reaching base.