Line Drive Rates and BABIP

I am a big fan of reviewing line drive percentage and babip. If you are not familiar with what I am referring to:
- Line Drive Percentage is the percentage in which the hitter hits a line drive. A good line drive rate would be 19% or above. Exceptional would be over 20%
- BABIP, or Batting Average on Balls in Play, is the average a hitter has when the ball is put in play. This does not count strikeouts or home runs. On average a hitter's BABIP is around .300.

By using the above two statistics, I can tell when a hitter is lucky or unlucky for the most part. For example, if a hitter has a high line drive percentage (ex: 21%), but has a very low BABIP (ex: .220), the hitter is probably getting unlucky. (I also take into account strikeout rates). A hitter in this situation probably has a low average. I would usually want to look into trading low for a player like this.

On the flipside, if a hitter has a low line drive percentage (ex: 13%), but a very high BABIP (ex: .370), chances are this hitter is getting lucky. I would usually want to consider selling high on a player like this.

One recent instance where I used BABIP and line drive percentage in a trade was for Curtis Granderson. Granderson has historically had good ld% numbers:
- 2006 - 22.2 %
- 2007 - 21.0 %
- 2008 - 19.1 %
- 2009 - 21.2 %
- 2010 - 25.7 %

If you take a look at Granderson's BABIP, it is sitting at a lower rate of .280. I am thinking with the combination of this LD% and BABIP, he should be hitting at a higher average of what he is currently hitting. (.240 as of July 16, 2010). I made the trade to obtain him.