Resurgence continues for Konerko

When the White Sox acquired Ken Griffey Jr. from the Reds at the trade deadline everyone though it would hurt Paul Konerko even further than he had already hurt himself. Since then however he has been in the lineup almost everyone game and producing at a level not seen since 2006. Is his August productions real, or is it just a fluky set of numbers based on a small sample size? Lets take a look.

Konerko’s 2008 has been very up and down. Although he has made contact with the ball around 80% of the time all season with only minor variations, his OPS by month (.796, .538, .800, .537, 1.04) has been so up and down it has effected his entire performance. His LD% (13%, 21%, 30%, 21%, 33%) has also been extremely up and down in direct correlation with his OPS (with the exception of April where he was hitting the ball on the ground a lot and seems to have benefited from and inflated OPS). This has lead to a wildly varying xBA by month (.265, .226, .331, .221, .347).

What do these numbers mean? Its pretty simple. He has the upside to be very good however his inconsistency means you can’t depend on him long term. I would recommend picking him up for the short term however as he can single handedly move you up in a few categories if he’s hitting up to his level.