There were only 2 nominees in this week and it's 1:20 am.
Mike Schmidt - Aside from whoever is currently playing the Hot Corner for the Marlins (and heck, with the dude who is playing there now, I might have an argument some day), I consider Schmidt to be the best third baseman ever. Sure, he only has a lifetime batting average of .267, but he does know a little something about productivity at the plate as evidenced by his 548 homers. The dude knows more about hitting than a roomful of statisticians. I'll talk out of my ass for a bit here, but just because increased strikeouts are correlated to offensive production doesn't mean that batters should be swinging for the fences on a 2-strike count.
This leaves Bellamy and Riise. If a player hit another player in America with a golfclub, the sporting establishment would grind to a hault. ESPN would temporarily add 2 more channels. PTI would have to be an hour long. This would result in endless press-conferences and statements, and who knows, perhaps something similar to this happened in England. A similar thing may have happened in England for all I know, but that particular celebration. I don't even think T.O. would have the balls to mock an incident like that.
Way to hit your teammate with a golf club, and way to get hit by a golf club. Have a cookie Bellamy and Riise(only one though, so you're gonna have to split it).
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
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3 comments:
So now you're flip-flopping and saying that a strikeout is a big deal?
For the sake of argument, I looked up the two-strike count data for Schmidt, Burrell, and Dunn. Unfortunately the per-count data is incomplete before the year 2000, and so it only has 191 of Schmidts 1600 games played. In that subset, he had 349 plate appearances with 2 strikes, and struck out in 121 of those (35%) and hit .218/.292/.506 including 24 home runs. So, curiously, Schmidt himself didn't seem to be going for contact when there were two strikes, since he hit a higher percentage of homeruns than any other kind of hit, in this sample.
Name PA K HR AVG/OBP/SLG
Burrell 2278 1017 73 .177/.287/.330
Dunn 1919 927 66 .151/.269/.306
Dunn and Burrell both normally strike out in about 1/4 of their plate appearances. Schmidt struck out in about 1/10 of his. So all three players exhibit a 25% increase in strikeouts when there are two strikes. Of course all players make an adjustment when there are two strikes, otherwise they wouldn't be in the major leagues. But anyone who doesn't want a Burrell or Dunn type player on their baseball team because of strikeouts is an idiot.
And Brooks Robinson and Harmon Killebrew were both much better third basemen than Schmidt.
Brooks Robinson had a good run, and might be the best defensive shortstop, but he also hit .267 and had half as many homers(268) as Schmidt. Although Robinson won 16 consecutive gold gloves, Schmidt was no slouch on defense and won 10 Gold Gloves of his own.
Killebrew did hit more homers(573), but his career batting average was a Todd Hollandsworth-esque .256 and had an extra 5 seasons to hit the additional 25 home runs.
He never won a gold glove and has the dubious honor of being one of only three non-batters who made the Hall without ever hitting .300 in a season(thanks Wikipedia trivia).
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