More fun with stats. Two sample lines from Marlins' starters, since May 22nd (the past three weeks):
Player A: .306 BA/.362 OBP/.452 SLG - for an OPS of .814
Player B: .264/.325/.458 - for an OPS of .783
(Stats courtesy of Baseball Musings' Day by Day Database)
Lines for those same players for the full season (to date):
Player A: .226/.276/.359 - for an OPS of .635
Player B: .336/.386/.558 - for an OPS of .943
Player A is obviously Mike Lowell. Player B is Miguel Cabrera.
Cabrera is having a great year. He's been a little off of late, but on the whole, he's putting up superstar-type numbers (and at age 22). However, because of his hot start, he's more likely to get credit for it than Lowell, who started out very cold. Lowell, over the past three weeks, has hit pretty well.
Mike is not hitting homers (other than Friday night's grand slam) but he is hitting for average and some power (well, doubles). At his current pace, Mike will hit 47 doubles this year, which would set the Marlins franchise record (currently 45, by Cliff Floyd in that magical year of 1998).
My point is that sometimes it's easy to get caught up in season stat lines, when they often don't tell the whole tale. Lowell is likely out of his skump. Sure, three weeks doesn't make a season - but it's not an insignificant amount of time either.