September 24, 2009

Related BaseballReference thread.

posted by yerfatma at 03:43 PM on September 24, 2009

Sounds like he's one of those that wants to hit it out of the park or nothing. With a good batting coach and some meditation, he could end up being as good as a Chipper Jones or better. He's 2 years younger than when Chipper made the list of 40+/20+ and overall stats are slightly lower, but not so much to drop him, just to give him extra practice and mentoring before the beginning of the next season. Let him calm down and find his groove and we could see something spectacular next year. Or I could be wrong and he breaks the strikeout record again next year with no HR and no SB....

posted by stalnakerz at 05:44 PM on September 24, 2009

Babe Ruth "either hit the long ball or he struck out swinging" Do you come from a parallel universe? Ruth averaged 86 strikeouts (weighted to a 162 game schedule). The most he ever struck out in a single season was 93. BTW his lifetime BA is 342. Pretty hard to do for someone who either strikes out or hits a homer.

posted by pullmyfinger at 08:47 AM on September 25, 2009

Did I even say that he struck out as many times as Reynolds? Before Ruth even started hitting homeruns, players were leading the league with 12 HR which is ridiculous compared with today's standards. The point being is that Ruth was known for swinging with everything he had and when he struck out, he struck out badly.

Read this quote: "Babe Ruth bears some of the responsibility for this, for demonstrating the strategic advantages of the long ball vs. "Little Ball." Yet while the Bambino was renowned for his healthy hacks, and held baseball's career strikeout record from 1926 until 1964, he now ranks a remote 87th in that shameful statistic. (Ruth's contemporary and teammate infielder Joe Sewell struck out no more than nine times in any of his last nine seasons.)" from this site.

Never struck out more than 93 times in a season

And that was still a high number for strikeouts when Ruth was playing.

Sure about your "spinning like a top" analysis?

Positive about that. You guys act as if I'm making this stuff up. Look it up for yourselves and notice what was said about Ruth when he struck out.

posted by BornIcon at 09:33 AM on September 25, 2009

Look it up for yourselves and notice what was said about Ruth when he struck out.

Well, hell, that's all the science and fact I need. What some guy said about a strikeout he might have seen some 70 years ago. Well played, BI. Well played, indeed.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 09:51 AM on September 25, 2009

I mean, he did in fact hold the strikeout record from 1926 until 1964 so it's not as if he wasn't striking out regularly.

And yet Reynolds has shattered Ruth's ancient strikeout standards with consecutive 200k seasons. It's unprecedented in baseball history to whiff at that magnitude. The Babe Ruth comparison is simply not apt.

Reynolds is a very good offensive ballplayer at the moment, as his 40+ bombs attest. (I don't care very much about his RBI numbers, as that's a completely overrated stat.) He markedly raised his BA this year, along with his OBP and total walks, all of which are good things. His OPS+ of 131 was the best of his three-year career. Baseball Reference raises comparisons to Mike Schmidt, and what's not to like about that?

My only concern, were I drafting for a dynasty league for instance, is his "So what?" attitude. Reynolds is approaching his prime, his bat is moving as quickly as it ever will, and when he makes contact, he blasts the ball out of the park. That won't always be the case, and unless he makes a concerted effort to improve his plate discipline, his stats will go way downhill when he cracks 30.

Now, a two-word quote shouldn't damn him in our minds, but my hope is that Reynolds will strive to be more like Adam Dunn, who strikes out many times a season but also complements that with 100+ walks a year. A player with "young player" skills like Reynolds ought to be continually working on his plate discipline, or his career will be as short as many a free-swinging slugger's before him.

posted by Venicemenace at 10:26 AM on September 25, 2009

Aaaaand..once again, I'm not the one comparing Reynolds to Ruth, you guys are. I made a comment that Ruth also struck out because he basically was either swing and make hard contact or miss and miss wildly but all was well because he produced.

So, in other words, you compared Babe Ruth to Mark Reynolds. Thanks for playing.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 11:03 AM on September 25, 2009

I have no problem with Reynolds breaking his own strike out record which he set last year, the guy hit 43 bombs to go along with 100 RBIs. Babe Ruth was also known as a guy that would swing with all of his might and it was either he hit the long ball or he struck out swinging....and spinning like a top doing so.

So, in your world, that's not a comparison between Reynolds and Ruth?

posted by The_Black_Hand at 11:37 AM on September 25, 2009

If that was your point, it's not a very good one.

162-game averages for Mark Reynolds and Babe Ruth

Reynolds: .259 BA / .341 OBP / .506 SLG - 35 HR, 103 RBI - 214 K, 69 BB - 113 OPS+

Ruth: .342 BA / .474 OBP / .690 SLG - 46 HR, 143 RBI - 86K, 133 BB - 207 OPS+

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One thing I will say for Reynolds, he is a solid basestealer as well. He's one of those guys who absolutely rules in fantasy baseball, above and beyond his all-around skills in the actual game, but I'd take him on my team, real or imagined, anytime.

posted by Venicemenace at 12:04 PM on September 25, 2009

It was still my point that they both struck out alot which is all I said.

They were also both bipeds who lived in North America during the current geological period.

posted by yerfatma at 04:08 PM on September 25, 2009