I recently read an article in the Sporting News Today by Chris Bahr The Most Overrated/Insignificant Stat in Baseball. Chris Bahr’s opinion is that the strikeout is the most overrated/insignificant stat in baseball. Chris Bahr’s argument as such is far from convincing, lacking serious support.
His poster boy for “strikeouts-ain’t-a-big-deal,” is Mark Reynolds. Mark Reynolds record setting 206 strikeouts (thus far) are what my great high-school baseball coach called, “one-man outs.” You cannot sustain consistent offensive production with a player striking out that many times…proof; look at the D-backs’ record (66-88 through September 25<SUP>th</SUP>). Chris Bahr argues that his strikeouts are not that big of deal when considering the offense that he produces when he doesn’t strikeout.
Now, let’s look at Mark Reynolds and his strikeouts. No stat is available, at least I don’t know if there is, that shows how many runners were in scoring position when one of his strikeouts occurred. That would be an interesting stat to see. Let’s say, for conservative sake, he stuck out a third amount less if he would have taken a more conservative approach at the plate. That would be 62 more times he would have gotten out of the “one-man out” situation and put the pressure on the defense to either field a groundball or flyball, or just getting a base hit or extra-base hit. Let’s say of those 62 at-bats a third of those were with men in scoring position. 20 at-bats with the opportunity with at least 20 more rbi or in that neighborhood. Heck, he is hitting a homerun every 13 at-bats. Now you are looking at Mark Reynolds hitting at least the 120 rbi mark.
This is a conservative number, this number may be higher, and now he is in the Prince Fielder (131 strikeouts with nearly the same at-bats) neighborhood in rbi. Maybe those 20+ rbi help win 10-15 more ballgames for this D-backs team, and maybe they are in post-season contention instead of playing spoiler.
Huh, I think I would take that Mark Reynolds instead of the Mr. K version.
What do you think is the most overrated or insignificant stat in baseball, or not, such as the case with the strikeout?
His poster boy for “strikeouts-ain’t-a-big-deal,” is Mark Reynolds. Mark Reynolds record setting 206 strikeouts (thus far) are what my great high-school baseball coach called, “one-man outs.” You cannot sustain consistent offensive production with a player striking out that many times…proof; look at the D-backs’ record (66-88 through September 25<SUP>th</SUP>). Chris Bahr argues that his strikeouts are not that big of deal when considering the offense that he produces when he doesn’t strikeout.
Now, let’s look at Mark Reynolds and his strikeouts. No stat is available, at least I don’t know if there is, that shows how many runners were in scoring position when one of his strikeouts occurred. That would be an interesting stat to see. Let’s say, for conservative sake, he stuck out a third amount less if he would have taken a more conservative approach at the plate. That would be 62 more times he would have gotten out of the “one-man out” situation and put the pressure on the defense to either field a groundball or flyball, or just getting a base hit or extra-base hit. Let’s say of those 62 at-bats a third of those were with men in scoring position. 20 at-bats with the opportunity with at least 20 more rbi or in that neighborhood. Heck, he is hitting a homerun every 13 at-bats. Now you are looking at Mark Reynolds hitting at least the 120 rbi mark.
This is a conservative number, this number may be higher, and now he is in the Prince Fielder (131 strikeouts with nearly the same at-bats) neighborhood in rbi. Maybe those 20+ rbi help win 10-15 more ballgames for this D-backs team, and maybe they are in post-season contention instead of playing spoiler.
Huh, I think I would take that Mark Reynolds instead of the Mr. K version.
What do you think is the most overrated or insignificant stat in baseball, or not, such as the case with the strikeout?
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