It's great to do research and look at statistics, but you look at some weird stuff....His career average in July?

Do you think he knows what month it is? That he goes into a slump just because it's July?

What could it be about July that causes him to slump?

There are certain things to look at - "splits" - that I consider legit.

Artificial turf vs. natural grass fields, certain parks, certain pitchers, day games vs. nite games, etc.

But to say that you don't want a guy because he doesn't hit as well in July as in other months is silly.

That's like saying you're not gonna take a guy in the salary cap game on a Tuesday because he doesn't hit well on Tuesdays.

If you tell me that you looked at all of the parks he has to play in during the month, and he does poorly in most of them, I'd agree.

If you tell me he does poorly against the pitchers he figures to be facing in July comapred to other pitchers, fine.

But to say that "he doesn't hit well in July" and have no other reason why other than the fact the the next four weeks or so are spelled J-U-L-Y makes no sense.

Same thing with Schmidt.

His record in a particular month is strictly a function of where he has to pitch, who he has to pitch against, and his health.

What month of the year it is has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

If you want to argue that maybe in April a player isn't fully settled in his "groove" yet, and by September he might be a little worn out - which would hold true for any player - I might agree with you, but other than that I don't think that a player's past performance in a particular month has anything to do with anything other than the factors I cited.