June 27, 2017

The 200 K Hitter

Aaron Judge is on a pace to strike out 200 times in the 2017 season. In 74 Yankees games, he struck out 92 times, or 1.24 K per team game. Over 162 games, that would be 201 strikeouts.

Judge also collected 86 hits, 1.16 per Yankees game. Over 162 games, that would be 188 hits. The most hits by a batter with 200 strikeouts in a season belongs to Mark Reynolds and Chris Davis. Both collected 150 hits. Reynolds struck out 223 times in 2009, the year he set the record. Davis struck out 208 in 2015, the year he equaled the record.

Judges strikeouts are not slowing down. I thought maybe as he fought for a triple crown he might start making more contact, but June is not over and is already his highest strikeout month of the year. High strikeout players are supposed to trade singles for home runs. They are not supposed to hit for a high average. Miguel Cabrera was able to win the triple crown by reducing his K rate. Fans used to think Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle struck out too much, but they produced high batting averages as they struck out around 100 times a season, not 200 times. Judge is breaking the mold of what a power hitter can be.

2 thoughts on “The 200 K Hitter

  1. Pft

    The league average strike out rates when Mantle and Ruth played were almost half what it is today. If you normalize these stats you will see Judge is not much different relative to league average than Mantle or Ruth

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  2. rbj

    It seems to me a lot of his strikeouts are caught looking. He’s not expanding the zone with two strikes on him.

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