Heading into Friday’s game against America’s Team, Nick Swisher possessed a .292 wOBA. His power has been Jeterian with an ISO of .084. The Yankees have basically been receiving replacement-level production from the RF position for a little more than a month. Does it suck? Yes. But, is there something discernibly wrong with Swish? Absolutely not. Let’s look at the numbers.

Swisher is a notoriously patient hitter, seeing 4.2 pitchers per plate appearance. He’s right there this season, and after a big dip in his walk rate last season (9.1%), Swisher is walking at an excellent 14.6% rate (career: 13.3%).

That might lead one to think Swish is being too patient, as he was very aggressive in 2010 with great success. However, Swisher is still swinging at 42% of pitches, which is above his career rate of 40%. He is being a little less aggressive than last year (44.5% in 2010), but he should be, as pitchers are throwing him less strikes than in any other year of his career (42% of pitches have been in the strike zone vs. 47.3% for his career). Apparently, he has scared pitchers off a bit.

Couple the increased walk rate with the lowest strikeout rate of his career (21.8%), and it’s obvious he’s seeing the ball very well. In fact, his BB/K ratio is at the best rate of his career at 0.81. His plate approach is perfectly fine.

It really all comes down to luck. His line drive rate of 25% is a career-best and the highest on the Yankees, yet his BABIP is a horrid .255. His HR/FB rate is a microscopic 5.1%, which is way below his norm of 14.6%. This is really just a case of bad luck, pure and simple. There is nothing fundamentally wrong about what he’s doing at the plate. The ball just isn’t cooperating once it’s put into play. Swish will be fine and he’ll be knee-deep in pie soon.