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NFL: Tennessee Titans
MLB: Cincinnati Reds -
NFL: Tennessee Titans
MLB: Cincinnati RedsComment
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Re: Reds sign Aaron Harang to 4 year deal
Just show me those stats on how Adam Dunn is the most proficient and best player in Reds history with the remarkable ability of being the best in regards to never making outs. I reallly do find it quite amazing how the record holder for K's can hold that title, but hey if you show me that proof then more power to ya. Once you do that, I'll eat crow. Until then, you're the one who should be checking your statements at the door. Go Reds!Comment
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Re: Reds sign Aaron Harang to 4 year deal
Mike Schmidt put it in pretty good terms..
By Hal McCoy
Staff Writer
Friday, February 09, 2007
Unprompted, Mike Schmidt ticked off two names that, well, "Tick me off. Pat Burrell and Adam Dunn, because they strike out so much."
This, from a guy who struck out 1,883 times during 18 years with the Philadelphia Phillies, including five seasons of more than 135 whiffs. He struck out so much early in his career that teammate Willie Montanez called him Ah-choo, because strikeouts create the same breeze as a sneeze.
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<!--startclickprintinclude--><!--begintext--> Schmidt struck out four times against Montreal on 12 pitches, and even though he hit a game-winning home run on the 13th pitch, he left the field in his uniform, climbed into his car and drove home, "Where I had a sleepless night."
He struck out in a high school game when he played for Fairview. Meadowdale catcher Steve Yeager, later a star catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, stuck the ball under his nose and said, "This what you're looking for?" Said Schmidt, "I went home and cried."
That's why he wonders what Cincinnati's Dunn and Philadelphia's Burrell are thinking when they swing for the fences on every pitch and strike out time after time.
"I don't know Adam Dunn, but from watching I'd say I don't know that a strikeout is as much a slap in the face as it was when I played," said Schmidt, the keynote speaker at Thursday morning's Leadership Breakfast at the Mandalay Banquet Center. "Or maybe I shouldn't have despised the strikeout as much as I did. You get three swats at a guy and there is no reason to strike out as much as I did.
"Now I know that if I had choked up on the bat with two strikes and hadn't been so aggressive and gave in to the pitcher, I wouldn't have struck out so much. And that's what guys like Dunn and Burrell have to realize," Schmidt added.
Schmidt said that with a game on the line pitchers don't mind facing guys like Dunn and Burrell because they know they can strike them out.
"How do I know this? Because when I played pitchers wanted me up there with the game on the line," he said. "They'd rather face me than a guy behind me like Greg Luzinski, who would put the ball in play.
"I look at Dunn and Burrell and I go, 'My God, if these guys cut their strikeouts down to 75 or 80, they put the ball in play 85 or 90 more times a year. That's at least 15 more home runs a year and at least 35 more RBIs a year.' "
Schmidt hit 548 home runs, was National League MVP four times and was named the top major-league player of the 1980s, despite his strikeouts. He wonders if Dunn and Burrell watch St. Louis superstar Albert Pujols, a guy who hits not only for power, but for average and strikes out fewer than 70 times a year.
"You truly have to not care and feel no pressure on yourself to allow yourself to strikeout more than 150 times a year," Schmidt said, pointing to his 1981 MVP season when he struck out only 71 times. "But I still hit 31 homers and drove in 91 and I hit .316. And I wanted to be at the plate when a hit was needed because I felt good about my game and had come a long way.
"If you could instill in Dunn and Burrell that they want to become contact hitters ... I mean, why would Dunn and Burrell watch what Pujols does and not want to be like him, as good as he is? When their careers are over, they are going to wonder how much they left on the table, how much they left on the field. If only they had choked up with two strikes, spread their stances out. What they are doing now is not great, it is mediocrity."Comment
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Re: Reds sign Aaron Harang to 4 year deal
read this thread and get back to me. This is from a bunch of folks much more stats savy than me.
http://www.redszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54501
Notice I was the first to reply and said Schmidt made some good points. His actual knowledge of things is way off, you may understand.NFL: Tennessee Titans
MLB: Cincinnati RedsComment
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Re: Reds sign Aaron Harang to 4 year deal
i think this notion that moneyball purists make that avg is overrated is lame.
bottom line .245 average is weak. i don't care what the obp or ops or occ is.Comment
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