Too Many Strikeouts - See 1959 Topps Card

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by t206kid

Yogi Berra hit 358 home runs from a valuable position...struck out 414 times in 8300 at bats.

1950 struck out 12 times and hit .322/28/124 with 192 hits

Not only singles artists with the low K totals

And, I betcha lots of those 192 base hits were made on pitches that weren't in the strike zone! I was a Yankees hater from early on (because they always beat up on my 1950's Senators), but the one Yankees' player I rooted for was Yogi. I feel he was more important to the Yankees immense success during his time than any other Yankee player.

[sgbernard]

That's why I was a Tony Gwynn fan growing up, still am. He normally kept it to under 25 SO a year.

The constant use of the shift really punishes contact hitters these days. I wonder if MLB could consider limiting how far players can range out of position to cut down on that. This is a really recent change even from three or four years ago, I remember Albert Pujols, whose numbers have just dropped off a cliff the last few years, but who used to be a solid low .300s hitter, lamenting how hard it is to get a groundball out of the infield what with the way managers use the shift these days. If you don't have a chance of slapping a ball for a hit, your better statistical option becomes to swing for the fences or strike out.

[ValKehl]

I think the extreme shifts most punish the power, pull hitters the most. Actually, I think the extreme shifts could benefit the contact hitters.