Is this guy baseball's next .400 hitter?

Maybe, maybe not. But Kevin Youkilis is off to one of the hottest starts in baseball, hitting .469 with three dingers and 10 RBIs through the Red Sox's first 13 games. Sure, that's not that much time, but here are five very good reasons why he could make this happen.

1) He's well on his way. Remember last season when everybody in baseball was beside themselves with anticipation about Chipper Jones hitting .400? After 13 games in 2008, he was at .415, or 54 points lower than Youk. Sure, Jones ended April still on pace (.410) and ended May even better (.417) before finally falling to .394 on June 19 and never recovering, but Youk isn't there yet, so we don't know. All we know is that even with David Ortiz struggling and the rest of the offense either all or nothing, the Sox cleanup hitter is simply stroking (he's got 8 multi-hit games versus 2 no-hit games) and hasn't given anyone a reason, to this point, why it isn't within the realm of possibility.

2) He is an incredibly patient hitter with an even better set of eyes. For you people not obsessed with Boston baseball (I'm sorry too...you're missing out), when Youkilis came up through the farm system, he was heralded for his good eye. In the book "Moneyball" (which I haven't read, but am intrigued by, especially since it has failed spectacularly for Oakland A's GM Billy Beane), Youkilis is referred to as "The Greek God of Walks." In the long run, what this means is that he swings at good pitches to hit. Rarely does #20 stray from the strike zone to chase a bad pitch. Nine years ago, the Sox had a hitter who had the who's who in baseball saying he was the next to hit .400 (Nomah). His problem was that he was a first pitch fastball hitter, so smart pitchers could get ahead of him in the count or get him to put a bad pitch in play. Make no mistake, Garciaparra turned many of these into base hits, but he finished at .372 and walked just 61 times (many of which were, undoubtedly intentional and even that number is a career high). Now, while Youk walked just once more than that in 2008, he is just three years removed from 91 free passes and 77 more in 2007. It's one thing to be a great hitter, but it's another to be a great hitter and work pitchers into throwing what you want.

3) Youk's average has gone up every year he's been in the league. At 30, Youkilis is most likely entering his prime now after not breaking into the majors until he was 25. Now a veteran, he has seen his average climb for half a decade:

2004: .260
2005: .278
2006: .279
2007: .288
2008: .312

Now, .312 isn't .400, or even in the same ballpark (pun intended), but if he continues to get better, who knows what could happen?

4) He's got great hitting behind him. J.D. "If I'm not looking at strike three, I'm raking" Drew and Jason "Manny who?" Bay are good, professional hitters who, when hot, can strike fear into opposing pitchers. If they're at the top of their game, Youk is going to get pitches to hit in front of them and he's shown that he knows what to do with those pitches, especially with the monster just 310 feet away. And even if Drew and Bay aren't producing as much, Youkilis is still a solid enough hitter to the point where he can maintain a great average, especially in the pitching starved AL East (where three staffs, Baltimore, Tampa Bay and, oh joy, New York, are among the nine worst in baseball).

5) He's already smacking pitching from clubs against which he has traditionally struggled. From 2006-2008, Youk hit .297 against the Orioles, .281 versus the Angels, .264 against the A's and .244 versus the Rays. Through one series against each of those teams (hey, I know it's a small sample size, but stay with me) he hit .455 against Baltimore, .364 versus the Halos, .385 against Oakland and .667 versus Tampa Bay. Sure, his averages against Anaheim and Oakland don't meet the .400 benchmark, but he doesn't play them 19 times like he does the other two teams. Against the other two AL East squads from 2006-2008, he hit just .231 against Toronto, but .313 versus the Skankees (third highest of all AL teams, trailing Detroit (.333) and the Indians (.368)).

Will he make it? That, obviously, remains to be seen. But Just South of North's Brandon Hansen and myself have made a pact that our goatees will remain unshaven, in honor of Youkilis, until he falls below that cherished number. I don't think I can grow mine to look like Youk's between now and the end of September, but, like with Kevin Youkilis, we'll just see what happens in that time.