Dan Uggla's hitting streak ended at 33 yesterday

The Cubs managed to shut down Uggla, ending the Majors' longest hitting streak in 5 years.  The Chicago second baseman made a tremendous running catch out in short right field to rob Uggla of a hit.

Uggla's streak raised his batting average from .173, lowest in the National League among qualified hitters, when it started to .231.

When his hitting streak hit 20 games, Uggla gained a pair of distinctions.  He was both the hitter with the lowest batting average in history to ever start a 20 game hitting streak.  He was still hitting .195 I think it was at that point, which gave him the lowest batting average in history for a batter with an active 20 game hitting streak.

Uggla's hitting streak though helped restore some luck to his season.  The analysis of his power numbers, his walks to strikeouts ratio, his ground ball/fly ball ratio, etc., all indicate that he's hitting the ball pretty much the same as he always does in a normally productive year for him.  The difference is that his batting average on balls put in play was a ridiculous .196 or something before the streak started.  So that meant he was hitting the ball, he just had the dumb luck of not hitting it into empty space for a hit, ALOT.  At some point when you hit the ball it's going to find holes and not gloves.  That finally happened for Uggla, all at once it seems.

Sometimes batting average on balls in play goes the other way.  Last season Detroit's Austin Jackson led the major leagues in BABIP with a .396.  That offset the fact that he led the American League in strikeouts, and I think set the major league record for strikeouts by a guy who didn't hit 20 home runs (since most big strikeout guys hit a lot of home runs and swing for the fences alot).  So he hit in the .280's and was over .300 until a late slump the last couple weeks of the season.  This year Jackson's hitting a more normal .338 on balls put in play.  He's again leading the league in strikeouts, thus his overall batting average sits at .245.  He's the worst at not putting the ball in play but the fact that his BABIP was insane last year maintained his good batting average.  With his skillset though he needs more balls in play.