All right.  Blake Dewitt had went yard again today and added a double to bring his season line to .327 .400 .533 in 107 ab's.  Sure 107 ab's isn't a huge sample size but did anyone on the planet see this type of start for him?  I mean, this is a guy who spent the majority of last season in the Cal League struggling to put up an OPS over .800 and now he's just about the best hitter in the Dodgers lineup.  The natural question is:  Is this performance real? 

Right now his BABIP is a fairly high .350 especially given his low line drive rate (13% according to fangraphs).  It is unlikely that he will maintain that kind of BABIP but I also would think that the line drive rate is a little low for him as well.  The kid seems to have a pretty good idea what he's doing at the plate evidenced by his 12/13 bb/k ratio and it isn't as if the pedigree isn't there either.  A first round pick out of high school in 2004 he was seen as one of the best pure hitters in the draft that year and even throughout his early struggles in the minors scouts continued to praise his smooth lefty stroke. 

The walk rate definitely has come of a surprise to me.  It's not often that you see a guy double his career walk rate after only a handful of ab's in AA but it's getting to the point where it seems like that discipline may be for real.   Of course pitchers may just need a chance to adjust to him but that seems a little less likely given all the previous praise of his stroke and his ability to let the ball travel deep into the zone.

So what do you guys think?  I for one am being more and more convinced that this kid is the real deal.  I certainly wouldn't expect him to maintain the batting average but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him finish with a line somewhere around .290 .365 .470 which is certainly good enough to start at third base for a lot of major league teams.  Also, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that he could be moved back to second which would make that line stand out even more.