Strikeouts: Are they that big of a deal?

Ask anyone who has ever played baseball or any baseball fan the following question: “What is the worst outcome a hitter can have during an at bat”. The answer you will get will be a hitter striking out. Obviously, a hitter striking out provides no help to their team. It’s an out that doesn’t advance any baserunners or put any pressure on the defence. Oddly enough though, some of the most productive hitters in the game are hitters that strike out the most.

To show this point, I will list the 9 hitters that had the 9 highest strikeout totals during the 2017 season. Individual and team stats are taken from MLB.com. They are as follows:

Aaron Judge (208 K’s)

Joey Gallo (196 K’s)

Chris Davis (195 K’s)

Khris Davis (195 K’s)

Trevor Story (191 K’s)

Wil Myers (180 K’s)

Justin Upton (180 K’s)

Steven Souza Jr (179 K’s)

Domingo Santana (178 K’s)

Firstly, it should be pointed out that some of these guys are among the most feared sluggers in the game today. In fact, three of the top 5 home run hitters from 2017 for both leagues (Judge, Gallo, K. Davis) are on the list above. The strikeout leader, Judge, finished second in MVP voting in 2017.

Secondly, if you were to average out these 9 players stats, here is what that would look like:

130 Hits

521 AB

0.250 AVG

35 HR

88 RBI

87 R

76 BB

0.350 On-Base Percentage

0.510 Slugging Percentage

0.860 OPS

Now, most teams would love to have a player who can provide that kind of production over an entire season, particularly the 35 Home Runs. 35 HR is more than the 2017 HR totals of well known sluggers such as Anthony Rizzo, Manny Machado, Kris Bryant, to name a few.

If these 9 strikeout leaders were put into a MLB lineup together, here’s where they would place in major statistical categories for teams in 2017:

HR – 1^st

R – 11^th

RBI – 6^th

BB – 1^st

AVG – Tied 19^th

OBP – 1^st

SLG – 1^st

OPS – 1^st

 

Now this doesn’t take into account any contributions from bench players. Even without that, this “team” would hit the most home runs (by far, I might add). They would also lead the majors in OBP, which is weird seeing how these guys are the STRIKEOUT leaders, which doesn’t contribute to that, or to any of these stats for that matter. The runs and RBI totals would also finish in the top half of the league.

It’s possible that these strikeout piled up by these hitters are just the by-product of an aggressive approach at the plate, which results in a lot of home runs but also a lot of K’s. Interesting to see how the most negative possible result to an at bat is related to big-time production at the plate. Go figure.