The Mike Cameron Conspiracy

Mike Cameron, OF for the Brewers, recently served his one game suspension for an "ump bump". While arguing a called third strike on June 6th in Atlanta, he made inappropriate contact with the umpire which resulted in the MLB handing down a 2-game suspension. Cameron then decided to raise more ruckus by appealing his suspension. While the MLB did reduce his suspension to one game which he served this past Saturday against the Detroit Tigers maybe Cameron should have just taken the two days off earlier this month.

Since his tussle with the umpire in Atlanta his strike out rate has jumped ten percent, from 27% to 37%. While this is a small sample size, I don't think it's too outlandish to think that the subjective art of calling balls and strikes may have been intentionally skewed against Cameron during his borrowed time before his suspension. While Cameron's appeal was being reviewed he's surely had little room for outbursts and has had to silently take whatever calls the umpires have issued him and do his best to keep the result of his at-bats out of the hands of umpires.

Whether there has actually been a conspiracy against Cameron over the last few weeks, or if he's simply perceived a conspiracy against him is moot; they would yield the same result, a higher strike out rate. If the umps have given him less leniency at the plate he would strike out more frequently. If he believed that he wasn't going to get fair calls at the plate, he would chase poor pitches in an effort to nullify any unfairness concerning the strike zone, which would result in more strike outs.

Regardless the cause of his increased strike out rate, whether it be his paranoia or a conspiracy or both, I would expect his numbers to recover now that his suspension has been served and the whole "ump bump" scandal is behind him.

Here are the pure numbers on the season:

• Mike Cameron's career strike out rate: 1706 SO in 6119 AB = 27.9%
• From June 6th to June 19th, 16 of 43 at bats resulted in strike outs... 37.2%
• In the time leading up to the "ump bump" as well as his first game after suspension... 49 SO in 183 AB = 26.7%

Perhaps it's a good time to buy-low on this beleaguered batter.