That reminds me of when everyone was wondering what the heck was wrong with Clemente in 1968 when his BA fell all the way down to .291 (9th overall in the NL)!
Was that his "malaria" year?
I duinno. But it's funny that he could hit a very fine .291 (9th best BA in the NL) and have everyone wondering why he didn't hit well that year. Pretty darned high standard.
Kinda like Votto hitting an "anemic" .282. well Votto is down 40 points from last year and his ops has dropped from 1032 (second highest of his career) to 832, about 130 point drop from his career average. It is a Cutch like decline from MVP to decent player.
For Clemente at least it was a year when nobody hit. That was year that Yaz won the AL batting title with 301 average, the lowest average in history for a batting championship.