Trivia -- Power and (lack of) contact
 

The top 10 career home run leaders are as follows:

Barry Bonds
Hank Aaron
Babe Ruth
Albert Pujols
A Rod
Willie Mays
Ken Griffey Jr.
Jim Thome
Sammy Sosa
Frank Robinson

Which player had the lowest strikeout rate (per 162 games)? Which player had the highest?

I'm guessing Thome for the highest strikeout rate.

Bam! That was quick. 1 for 1. Thome is correct, with an average of 162 strikeouts per 162 games.

Now looking for the guy on the other end of the spectrum.

I'm torn but going to guess Aaron. Made an awful lot of good contact.

Looks like the question was too easy. Hank Aaron is correct, with 68 strikeouts per 162 games. That was surprising to me.

Perhaps an even bigger surprise was number 2. Any guesses for the guy with the second lowest strikeout rate? (He's not far behind Aaron).

Well I was torn between Aaron, Ruth, Mays and Robinson. I'll go Robinson

I would say Albert Pujols. Before I read the answers he was my guess for lowest strikeout rate.

Pujols is correct! He's right behind Hank Aaron with 74 strikeouts per 162 games. Very surprising to me, as I assumed he was a big strikeout guy. I had forgotten that he actually won a batting title.

(Will go back to trying to figure out who the 19th century pitcher is now...)

That's a good one - I wouldn't have guessed him from that list.

Expand the question to least in the entire 500 Home Run club (Thome is still the most). To me this was actually an EASIER question despite the expanded field.

I'm going to say that Aaron and Thome are still the winners. Stan Musial had a phenomenally low strikeout rate, but I know he's under 500 home runs.

On the other side, it is hard to see how anyone averages more than 1 strike out per game.

I did amend it to just the least as Thome beats Reggie by a wide margin in the expanded field.

In the new field one guy ties Aaron and two guys beat the pants off of him.

I would guess Ted Williams has the lowest strikeout rate of all 500+ home run hitters.

Correct, and 2nd place was hot on his heels

Mel Ott didn't strike out much.

Absolutely underrated, or maybe forgotten, monster of a hitter. Really not a big step behind Ted Williams overall. Yes he is #2 Ted struck our 50 times per 162 games Ott 53 times.