This is a start of a little project to try to study the changes in strikeouts over the years. I was hoping to cluster players into groups and study how the strikeout rates of those groups change over time. This spreadsheet is a first attempt. It includes everyone whose career started in 1969 or later (low mound era, division era), last played no later than 2015, and accumulated at least 2000 PA. For those players, I calculated their BABIP, and their BABNIP (batting average on balls not in play), defined as HR/(HR+K). The median BABIP was .291, the median BABNIP was .133.
There is a scatter plot of the data with the spreadsheet. Google does not make it easy to label points with the batter’s name, but you should be able to see the extremes. The most interesting grouping to me is Tony Gwynn, Manny Ramirez, Larry Walker, and Todd Helton. Gwynn did not have the home run power of the others, but his HR and Ks were in line at the lower level.
The group across the top is interesting as well. These are three players with high BABNIP, but different BABIPs. Valdimir Guerrero is at the high end of BABIP, and his BABIP is higher than his BABNIP, Don Mattingly is about even in both, and Barry Bonds has a higher BABNIP than BABIP. I suspect that as we go right to left along that group, line drive percentage diminishes.
On the far right in the middle are the great handlers of pitchers, Charlie O’Brien, Jeff Newman, Barry Foote, Buck Martinez. On the far right in the middle is a nice grouping of Wade Boggs, Derek Jeter, and Bobby Abreu.
Enzo Hernandez stands out as the player worst in both dimensions, but there is no corresponding great player. There is no one above Gwynn and to the right of Guerrero. There is no Ted Williams (.328 BABIP, .424 BABNIP).
Have fun with the data! More to come.
from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2JWcvI9
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