Chipper Jones Understands the Concept of 'Average', Is Not Concerned with .400 - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

It is May. May 19th in fact. I really wish that people would remember that when the talk of Chipper Jones hitting .400 for the entire season begins to heat up.

Sure, it's fun to imagine the possibility of him hitting that magic number, but it's also fun to imagine that Chris Shelton can launch 89 home runs in one season. And not to dog Chipper (which is what a Chris Shelton comparison basically is) because he's a great player, a standup guy and he's absolutely mashing the ball right now. But he knows as well as anyone that it's probably not happening.

'[Hitting] .400 is not a concern for me,' Jones said. 'You're going to run into enough Rich Hardens andJohan Santanas to keep that from happening. If I had hit .390 before in my career, then maybe. But I haven't. When you're a .310 career hitter, you usually hit .310.'

Okay, besides the fact that he lobbed Rich Harden out there like the A's gunner is going to start more than 12 games all season is kind of funny. But still, his point is that when you average .310 for your career, you are not likely to suddenly up and hit .400.

He is seeing grapefruits and raking the cover off the rock; he is also getting a little lucky right now (.408 BABIP, which is more than "a little"). His stats are going to come back to Earth, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy them for the moment. But there's no need to spend every waking moment asking him about some "quest for .400" when it's mid-May.

Fantasy Spin: See that BABIP? And Chipper's age? I'm selling high all over the place while he's still drawing the hype. Love the guy, love the Braves, but if you expect this to continue all season, you're delusional.