The 2018 Dinger Whiff Derby Winner - Jose Ramirez 76

[frankbmd]

Betts the best bet this week.

[Paul S]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Betts the best bet this week.

Gregorious not so much

[barrysloate]

Aaron Judge struck out 8 times yesterday in a doubleheader, I believe a new major league record. That is just brutal.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Aaron Judge struck out 8 times yesterday in a doubleheader, I believe a new major league record. That is just brutal.

Joe DiMaggio once struck out 13 times in a SEASON. Remarkable.

[barrysloate]

I know Peter. There was a time when players took pride in making contact and not striking out. Today, they don't even care. They can strike out 150 times a season as long as they are still otherwise productive. It is among the most dramatic ways the game has changed.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It looks to me like the OP has lost interest in his own thread.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It looks to me like the OP has lost interest in his own thread.

Hardly.

Monthly updates during the dawg days of summer seem sufficient.

Sabermetric scholars and riff raff will keep this important thread alive without my constant prodding.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Joe DiMaggio once struck out 13 times in a SEASON. Remarkable.

IMO, much too much is made about how few strikeouts there were in previous eras or by previous hitters.

The approach to hitting, to pitching and to the game are all very different.

ONLY in the most general examination are those statistics in anyway comparable.

[Peter_Spaeth]

What's different that it results in more strikeouts? We're not talking the deadball era in comparison, we're talking the 1930s in DiMaggio's case. One year he hit 46 HR and fanned 37 times, not like he wasn't trying to drive the ball.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

What's different that it results in more strikeouts?

You're Kidding?

Where do I start?

1) with the advent of regular relief pitching, starters no longer pace themselves, and can, instead, use more power pitches later in their five or six innings...and conservatively 95% of them throw 95MPH with some regularlarity. Even their breaking pitches are faster than previous era's fastballs.

2.) Those same starters are replaced by specialized relievers tasked to face only three or even one batter...with the same all-out approach as the starters. And 95% of them also throw 95MPH regularly with several now topping triple-digits.

3.) George H. Ruth's contribution's to the game has taken over almost completely as the one true goal of every hitter. In that effort, strikeouts are now accepted, in bunches, as long as some eventually contact is the result. The best Contracts are now created at the sweet spot, not at the end of the bat.

4.) The advent of drastic defensive shifts used with full knowledge of the all-or-nothing hitting approach where hitters are, almost to a man, totally predictable. Gone are the days when hitters hit against the shift. Gone are those trying to be Tony Gwynn (mister 5.5) with all instead emulating the other San Diego native's approach in the 1948 World Series.


5.) Stadium walls are created to encourage all of this, being made just high enough to allow for heroic defensive efforts, while being close enough to allow many 'cheapies'.

6.) Sports channels' highlight reels are almost always headed by continuous homerun replays.

Peter- Is that enough?