Chris Carter passes the Mendoza Line

Much more on the Mendoza Line, but a quick synopsis: if you are hitting under .200, you’re under the “Mendoza Line”; over and you’re above the “Mendoza Line.”

Anyway… A Short, Very Recent Time Ago in a Universe We Live In…

Chris Carter passed this disrepute measurement!

I know what you’re thinking, you’re going to devote an article to a professional baseball player passing the .200 Batting Average mark?!

Are you crazy? Do you just absolutely love Chris Carter?

No, I’m not crazy. I’m not. I’m…nottttt…crazy.

Bonus points for getting the two very nerdy references I’ve stuffed into this piece so far.

But I absolutely, unconditionally, irrationally love Houston Astros power hitting first baseman Chris Carter.

It all started years ago when

he gave me

I asked for his bat during a AA game when Carter manned first for the Oakland Athletics system.

I get emotionally and fandomatically* attached to players whose gear I can get ahold of. These include Ian Kinsler, Mike Moustakas, Carter, Jon Jay, Mike Olt, Jurickson Profar, Neftali Feliz and others. All Hall of Famers I know.

Carter historically has picked things up when the calendar flips to June, but this season it took until July for the big bopper to start doing more than just knocking the ball out of the park or watch it sail by into the catcher’s mitt.

In the last 30 days of baseball, Carter is hitting .269 with 6 home runs and 11 RBI.

In the last 15, he’s been excellent. .324 with 4 homers, 6 RBI and even stole his first (of maybe three?) stolen base of the season Sunday afternoon in a 2/3 effort and a welcome Astros win over the Chicago White Sox.

#Future

Photo Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Carter limped out of the gates this season, showing only one thing, the thing he’s paid baseball dollars to show — power. But of course statistic peripherals are admirable in any player, even in Adam Dunn or say, Jonathan Villar.

Carter’s RBI totals have suffered like the rest of the team due to its current state of not-so-bad-but-still-absolutely-rebuilding but he sits at 19 home runs, T-8th in all of baseball.

So we’re getting the power, but touching the gaps and showing plate discipline has thus far eluded the slugger in 2014, but the season is a long grind and Carter can look up at the scoreboard his next game and see a batting average past the unpopular Mendoza Line and perhaps feel even more motivation to continue improving on a season that continues to keep getting better for the 27-year old.