Teammates and coaches aren't surprised Stephen Drew hit well in the NLDS. Drew, according to them, hit well all year:

"It's a crazy game, that's all you can say," injured Diamondbacks second baseman Orlando Hudson said. "It's got nothing to do with pressing. It was unbelievable. That was the hardest .230 from a young man I've seen, hitting balls like that on the screws consistently at people. It was like, 'Are they putting 25 guys out there?' because that's what it seemed like."

Throughout Drew's struggles, manager Bob Melvin never lost faith. He repeatedly told reporters that Drew's average was due more to misfortune than performance. Watch, the manager said, one day Drew will be an All-Star, not once, but several times.

"I never saw a guy that would suggest (.238)," Melvin said. "He's always had better at-bats than that. I think toward the end, especially against Pittsburgh, and leading into when we were able to clinch a spot in the playoffs, that Stephen Drew was elevated and it's kind of moved right into the playoffs, so it's not unexpected."

This should be something we can test with the Probabilistic Model of Range, to see if he collected fewer hits than expected given the parameters of the balls he put in play. But he didn't have a very high line drive percentage this season, so I'm not sure I'm buying the explanation.