Seven Batters In A Season With 98+ K’s
Posted by Steve Lombardi on October 4, 2010
The 2010 Yankees are just the second team in major league history to have 7 batters in the same season with 98+ strikeouts.
Here are the teams to have 6+ batters in the same season with 98+ Ks -
| Rk | Year | Tm | Lg | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2010 | New York Yankees | AL | 7 | Brett Gardner / Curtis Granderson / Derek Jeter / Jorge Posada / Alex Rodriguez / Nick Swisher / Mark Teixeira |
| 2 | 2008 | Milwaukee Brewers | NL | 7 | Ryan Braun / Mike Cameron / Prince Fielder / Bill Hall / J.J. Hardy / Corey Hart / Rickie Weeks |
| 3 | 2010 | Arizona Diamondbacks | NL | 6 | Stephen Drew / Kelly Johnson / Adam LaRoche / Mark Reynolds / Justin Upton / Chris Young |
| 4 | 2009 | Tampa Bay Rays | AL | 6 | Pat Burrell / Carl Crawford / Evan Longoria / Carlos Pena / B.J. Upton / Ben Zobrist |
| 5 | 2008 | Florida Marlins | NL | 6 | Jorge Cantu / Jeremy Hermida / Mike Jacobs / Hanley Ramirez / Cody Ross / Dan Uggla |
| 6 | 2007 | Florida Marlins | NL | 6 | Miguel Cabrera / Jeremy Hermida / Mike Jacobs / Miguel Olivo / Dan Uggla / Josh Willingham |
| 7 | 2007 | Milwaukee Brewers | NL | 6 | Ryan Braun / Prince Fielder / Bill Hall / Corey Hart / Geoff Jenkins / Rickie Weeks |
| 8 | 2007 | Tampa Bay Devil Rays | AL | 6 | Carl Crawford / Jonny Gomes / Akinori Iwamura / Carlos Pena / B.J. Upton / Delmon Young |
| 9 | 2006 | Florida Marlins | NL | 6 | Miguel Cabrera / Mike Jacobs / Miguel Olivo / Hanley Ramirez / Dan Uggla / Josh Willingham |
| 10 | 2002 | New York Yankees | AL | 6 | Jason Giambi / Derek Jeter / Nick Johnson / Jorge Posada / Alfonso Soriano / Robin Ventura |
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October 5th, 2010 at 2:54 am
Well, Mark Reynolds isn't quite as infectious as we feared.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:35 am
Since when has 98 ever been considered a cutoff for anything. Cherry picking numbers like 98 just seem silly to me.
If this was based on 100, I would be more interested in it. But 98? Seriously?
October 5th, 2010 at 5:12 am
On a quasi-related note: 2010 ended with the second highest number of pitchers with 200+ strikeouts pitched, 14. There were 15 pitchers who reached 200+ in 1969.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:11 am
In 1968, the AL hit .230. If these current players hit in those cavernous parks, they would be lucky to hit .210. Games would have soccer scores.
This is what will be known as the Strikeout Era.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Ron - blame A-Rod. 😉
He had 98 Ks this season. The other 6 Yankees each had 100+ Ks.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:22 am
10 times, but four different franchises (Fla, TB, Mil, NYY) did it at least twice... plus ARI. So only five franchises. So it is kind of infectious.
How many clubs have finished the season with five or more batters having 100+ Ks?
October 5th, 2010 at 6:23 am
Raker - worse than the parks, imagine if today's hitters had to deal with the pitch between the shoulders and the belt being called a strike.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:37 am
Steve, true that. 🙂
October 5th, 2010 at 6:39 am
*and don't forget about the pitch between the shoulders in the center of the back that was legal back in the day! 🙂
October 5th, 2010 at 6:44 am
And in 1968 the pitching mound was much higher.
October 5th, 2010 at 7:21 am
Dan - here's the 100+ list, as requested:
October 5th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Seth - BTW, that's a great stat. Thanks.
October 5th, 2010 at 7:27 am
The Yankees didn't even strike out that much (seventh in the league). They just had a lot of guys who were in the lineup every day.
October 5th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Yikes, quite a list, Steve! All since 1993, most since 2001. I notice the Phillies are on there only once, and it's in the pre-Howard era. So for all the guff he gets for striking out, apparetly it was mostly just him..
Striking out a lot isn't a problem, in my estimation, unless you also have a low BA. I mean, a ground out can be better than a K if it moves a runner over, but most of them don't. Same with fly outs. So although strikeouts aren't quite as important as GOs and FOs, they're not overwhelmingly bad. If a player strikes out 100 times but hits .300, he's better than a guy who hits .240 but strikes out only 50 times - all other things being equal, of course.
October 5th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@14
"Striking out a lot isn't a problem, in my estimation, unless you also have a low BA."
Agreed, if you put "OBP" in place of "BA."
I was a bit surprised to see Brett Gardner on the list. Last year he whiffed in 14% of his PAs, which is below the norm. This year, his K rate was almost 18%. At the same time, his BB rate was half again as high as last year, to 13.9% from 9.1%. His BA didn't change much (up 7 pts.), but his OBP rose by 38 pts.
For most batters, there is (I believe) a strong positive correlation between BB rate and K rate. This may not apply to freaks of nature like Ted Williams and Albert Pujols (I'll leave you-know-who out of this), but most hitters who draw a lot of walks also strike out a lot. All the Yankees on this list had an above-average walk rate. The only Yankee regular who missed the list (Cano) had a below-average walk rate.
The correlation is probably much weaker from the other side -- a high K rate does not necessarily bring a high BB rate.
(I'm sure someone has run studies of this, but I don't have one handy.)
October 5th, 2010 at 9:22 am
None of those teams listed at the top of this post made the World Series that particular year.
October 5th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Gardner has been credited this year with being more patient and taking more pitches. Gardner's P/PA was 4.05 in 2009 and 4.62 in 2010 (league average was 3.83 and 3.82 respectively) so the numbers support this perception. The more pitches a batter sees (primarily takes), the more likely he is to strike out because he gets to counts where these results are possible.
His OBP has improved this year, his first year as a close to a full time player (569 PA). This is presumably due to his increased walk rate since his BA is essentially flat.
Whether this strategy maximizes Gardner's individual abilities and statistics is up for debate - he might be better off using the Ichiro strategy (not suggesting Ichiro would be his comparable) of putting a lot of balls in play and beating out hits with his tremendous speed and being less concerned with drawing walks. On the other hand, seeing a lot of pitches and getting the starter's pitch count high in order to get to the middle relief pitchers is in keeping with the Yankees' general team strategy and may produce benefits later in the game.
October 5th, 2010 at 9:58 am
@16
Jeff -- True, but then, only 2 teams per year do reach the WS. And we don't know yet about the 2010 Yankees.
I don't think the list shows anything about the quality of the teams. The average record of those 10 teams is 82-80, the median 84-78. Six teams had winning records, three made the playoffs.
October 5th, 2010 at 10:09 am
[...] had a 4.90 ERA after the All-Star Break. The Yankees led the AL in runs scored but are just the second team in MLB history to have seven players with at least 98 strikeouts. Delmon Young’s 110 RBIs is the most by a [...]
October 5th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Well, we know that as offensive levels go up, so too do strikeouts. However, if offensive levels are going down, the "strikeout curve," which follows offense, may be a bit behind, thus resulting in even MORE strikeouts in a "down" offensive year. This is total conjecture and completely made up, but I've kind of been thinking it all year. We'll really have to keep trying this to see if I'm right (which I'm probably not).
October 5th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Gardner's 4.62 pitches per PA were by far the most in the majors (Daric Barton saw 4.39). In fact, they are the most any player has seen since the data has been recorded (1988), and I'd venture to guess it's the most any player has ever seen since the limits were set at 4 balls and 3 strikes. Not that we'll ever know for sure, but it's pretty interesting.
Gardner swung at only 31% of pitches, lowest in the league. I guess the question is whether he's being too passive, letting too many hittable pitches and called strikes go by. He has one of the highest contact rates in the majors, so it doesn't seem like he should strike out as much as he does. Would he be better served by slapping more of those tough pitches on the ground and trying to beat them out? Hard to know. The guy had a very good season this year. Two years ago most thought he was a 4th outfielder at best, and he made himself into one of the better players in the league, at least for a year. I expect pitchers will be more aggressive with him next season, and we'll see how he adjusts.
October 5th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Dr. Dooom, I'm not sure the connection between offense and strikeouts is quite that close. Certainly strikeouts are a byproduct of big swings and taking tough pitches, which can result in homers and walks, which can increase offense. But there have been eras of high-scoring when strikeouts were quite low. Maybe in today's game, with better fielders, more relief pitchers, whatever else, offensive strategies which lead to more Ks are the most effective. I wouldn't be unconcerned with K-rates, however. At a certain point there must be too many of them and they will have a deleterious effect.
I guess a question is why did offense drop this season? Changed ball? Bigger parks? Weather? Better pitchers developing? Fluke?
October 5th, 2010 at 11:50 am
#15 - yes. More OBP than BA. If you walk AND strike out a lot, it's not a big deal. IIRC Adam Dunn does this.
So if you had one player with an OBP of .400 who struck out 140 times and another guy with an OBP of .340 who struck out only 80 times, obviously you'd prefer the former guy.
October 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
List of batters who played more than 100 games in a season, had an OBP of .375 or better, and struck out in 20% or more of their plate appearances.
October 5th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
"I guess a question is why did offense drop this season? Changed ball? Bigger parks? Weather? Better pitchers developing? Fluke?"
You missed the most obvious reason, Johnny.
The Dbacks' Class A California League franchise in Visalia also had seven players with 98+ strikeouts, which, considering they only play a 140 game schedule, is pretty amazing.
Apple doesn't fall far from the tree in baseball either, apparently.
October 5th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Oh of course, I forgot everyone stopped taking steroids this season, just like they all started taking them in 1993.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
JT-
The best argument I've heard has to do with an adjustment on the behalf of pitchers. With the recent emphasis on plate discipline, patience, and walks, pitchers eventually adjusted and started throwing more first pitch strikes, since the prevailing logic for hitters was to avoid swinging at the first pitch. This meant that, more often than not, pitchers were finding themselves in better counts to start the at bat, and the reverberations extended from there. I FEEL like I saw a data-driven post on this somewhere (maybe even here) though of course I don't remember it now. Nonetheless, intuitively, it makes some sense.
As I've said before, baseball has the same cat-and-mouse game that any other tactical sport does. We see football playing this game much faster, but baseball still is a party to it as well. We may just see the pitchers out ahead of the hitters strategicaly and, thus, gaining an advantage until the next round of adjustments come.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
MLB 1st pitch strike %
2010: 59
2009: 58
2008: 59
2007: 59
2006: 59
2001: 59
1996: 57
1991: 56
It would be nice if we had another decimal place, but it doesn't appear that anything unusual occurred this season in that regard. There does appear to be a definite change over the course of the '90s, however.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I checked the seasons I skipped. It was at 56% through the '90s until going to 57 in '96. Stayed at 56 or 57 before jumping to 59 in 2001. It's been mostly 59, occasionally 58 since then.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
JT-
A few possibilities:
1- I am remembering the post wrong and there was some other data that backed up the basic claim.
2- The post was wrong.
3- There was no post. I made it up. I am wrong.
I'll see if I can find what I think I might be talking about.
October 5th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
The strikeout total this year isn't really an anomaly. It's part of a trend that's been on the rise since 2007.
Pitchers with 200+ K's
2010: 14 (2nd most for any year)
2009: 10
2008: 9
2007: 8
Pitchers with 162+ IP, SO/9 IP 9+
2010: 10 (2nd most for any year)
2009: 11 (Most for any year)
2008: 4
2007: 5
Hitters with 100+ Strikeouts
2010: 81
2009: 76
2008: 86
2007: 86
Those are the top 4 years in baseball history