What Desmond needs for .300

OK, it's time for my one stat-head post of the season, and on the last day! ... Chone Figgins is currently sitting on a .298 batting average, and it's really splitting hairs, but let's face it -- a .300 average looks way better than a .299 average on the back of a baseball card.

So with my rudimentary mathematical skills (I can use a calculator), I have figured out what our Desmond needs to do today in the regular season finale to finish at .300 or over.

2-for-2 gets him over .300. So does almost any combination of three hits (3-for-3, 3-for-4, and 3-for-5 do it, and 3-for-6 just barely gets it done, leaving him him at .299837, which rounded up would technically make him a .300 hitter).

So let's say you're Mike Scioscia and Figgins gets hits in his first two at-bats. Do you pull him out of the game to preserve the .300 average? Or, what if Figgins goes 2-for-3 do you leave him in so that maybe he could go 3-for-4?

Do you pull a Napoleon Lajoie and have him try to bunt for a base-hit his first two at-bats ....? (In 1910, the St Louis Browns manager so hated Ty Cobb that he played his third baseman on the cut of the outfield grass, allowing Lajoie to bunt for six straight singles. He still lost the batting title to Cobb ...)

An interesting subplot to an otherwise inconsequential game before the nailbiting and ulcer medication kicks in ...