[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Do you imagine then guys like Ron Kittle, Dave Kingman, Mickey Tettleton etc are cursing that they were born a generation or two too soon?

Or, Rob Deer. The Brewers always had one of those guys when I was growing up. Gorman Thomas was the first. Nobody in baseball had more homers than Stormin' Gorman's 175 between 1978 and 1982. But he had a 27.5% K rate (and 28.6% for his career). I'll never understand how he could play center field. He wasn't exactly swift of foot. He looked like a weekend softball player. BBR lists him at 6'2" 210 lbs. I think that second number was being a little generous. Deer stepped in when Gorman left town. 215 home runs between '86 and '93 for Milwaukee, and a few years in Detroit. He also K'd 1,298 times in 3,645 ABs-a whopping 35.6%.

Tettleton, I can forgive. He was only a .241 career hitter, but the dude was a beast when it came to walking. Between 1990 and 1996, he walked 737 times in 982 games. He had a .243 AVG during that span, and a .383 OBP!

A career .369 OBP is better than a lot of guys that have been career .300 hitters. Tettleton is the poster child for why walks are so important. If you hit 30 home runs a year, and walk 100 times, and play the majority of your games behind the plate doing it, you get a pass whiffing 140 times a season.