On the infield, Hye-seong Kim of Kiwoom has won two KBO Fielding Bible Awards at second base (2020 and 2022), as well as the 2020 multi-position Fielding Bible Award. March 1, 2023. Astros GM Dana Brown has professed a tad bit of interest in re-signing Gurriel, although that supposed interest may have been a gesture of respect rather than a genuine expression of desire. On groundballs and line drives, his average EV and HardHit% were both close to his career averages. Team Korea has two young left-handed hitters who will line up in the middle of the order for the WBC. Carson Montgomery, RHP, Florida State. In 2011, only 6% managed the feat. The current criteria dont value that though. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. 1. His stuff isnt as explosive as others at the top of this list, but he proved last season that he has a knack for the punch out. The highest-ranked freshman on the BA 500 to make it to campus, Montgomery has a fastball that has been as high as 96 mph and a slider that was one of the best in the 2020 prep class. Gurriel has had an excellent big league career, and one that could have been all the more impressive had he made his way to the majors sooner. Lee ranked fourth in the KBO last season with an average exit velocity of 89 MPH according to our Synthetic Statcast model (SIS replicates Statcast data for non-MLB leagues), and he also finished in the top 10 in hard-hit rate (38%) and expected BABIP (.388). Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports. Could see him getting the McGriff treatment, WAR be damned. Joining Lee in the heart of the lineup will be KT Wiz first baseman Baek-ho Kang. Hamilton took to Division I baseball well in 2020 after transferring from the junior college ranks, striking out 33 batters in 19.1 innings for a resurgent Wichita State team. Because of an injury in 2019 and the season cancellation in 2020, Hill has thrown just 21.2 innings over two seasons at LSU, but he has struck out 28 in those innings. The question kind of becomes why Abreu never got close to his 2014 production (outside of 2020) again. Web[8] Active pitchers with 1,700 strikeouts (stats updated through 2022): Gerrit Cole (1,930) - 257 in 2022 Johnny Cueto (1,812) - 102 in 2022 Yu Darvish (1,788) - 197 in 2022 Anbal How many MLB caliber pitchers did he face or was he teeing off on A Ball level guys? Bruins Edge Sacramento State, 3-2 - UCLA He does not have a HOF case at all. It makes sense when a batter hits bad pitches, hes more likely to make bad contact. Cannon is in a similar place to Savino in that hes thrown just 11.1 innings at the college level, with his potential far outpacing his results due to the 2020 season cancellation. Its a tough ask for a freshman to come in and start dominating ACC hitters as a freshman, but those are the kind of raw materials that can allow a first-year pitcher to do so. Baseball After turning in an outstanding freshman season in 2019, Boone appeared to take a step forward in 2020, striking out 13.08 batters per nine innings after punching out 8.89 per nine innings as a freshman. Triples When a batter reaches on a hit and stops at third base or only advances Do you know which two big league pitchers from the twentieth century made the top ten? Missouri BaptistMISSOURI 12-1 Score By Periods W: Diamond, Micah(3-0) L: T. Hough (0-1) 5 Missouri BaptistMISSOURI12-2 6 WinnerJamestownJAMESTOW6-2 Missouri BaptistMISSOURI 12-2 5 Final Feb. 25, 2023 6 JamestownJAMESTOW 6-2 Score By Periods W: K. Yackley (1-0) Just look at the list of names who've led their league in strikeouts in recent seasons: Jacob deGrom, Shane Bieber, Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Chris Gurriels Baseball Savant page provides a good preliminary explanation of what went wrong. Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays A+) 82-36, .695 2. The man is a bat-to-ball machine; he rarely strikes out and almost never whiffs. "I know they're loaded. Last season Lee did his best Tony Gwynn impression, posting a tiny 5% strikeout rate with an 11% walk rate. He was better at the plate after taking a full year off than Freddie Freeman has ever been in a full season. Its most certainly conjecture, but its not beyond the realm of possibility, and to say he has no case goes too far, imo. Parks continued success hitting for power has him fourth all-time in KBO home runs despite a slow start to his career and missing two of his prime years playing in North America. His Hall over? But I do think we should appreciate that theres only one big difference between Abreus 21-25 seasons and Josh Gibsons: So did I. I find the argument about Abreus HOF chances to be interesting though. Its a relatively small sample, sure, but Lonsway led the country in strikeouts per nine innings last season by punching out 42 hitters in 18 innings of work. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. Copyright 2023 Baseball America Enterprises. 2023 MLB Player Hitting Stats | MLB.com Click here to get started. One is his pure stuff, which includes a devastating fastball-slider combination. Burnett (2008) and Roger Clemens (1997 and 98), Baseball Almanac is pleased to present a year-by-year leaderboard in Major League strikeouts for every season since 1876. Part of the Baseball Almanac Family, Current Through End of 2023 Regular Season. 2021 Major League Baseball Batting Leaders Is it like 90s Coors Field or the PCL? He posted a career-high contact rate and a career-low swinging strike rate. He likely would have battled Hye-seong Kim for a starting role on Team Korea had Tommy Edman not joined the team for the WBC. Or because juicing Matsuis NPB stats to match the delta that Abreu saw moving from the CNS would still leave his 19-28 numbers drastically worse than Abreus? However, if we look at those hitters with the most seasons of BB% > K% we do manage to find decent representation from a number of eras: I knew Yastrzemski was good, but I never would have guessed that he would have the most seasons with a higher walk than strikeout rate. strikeouts Kumar Rocker, RHP, Vanderbilt. That includes plenty of people who were older than 32 in 2006 and others that are still younger than 38. The Alabama lefthander was a big catalyst behind the Crimson Tides scalding-hot start to the season. Because of my beliefs about non-U.S. baseball accomplishments effect on hall worthiness, I dont have to grapple with these unknowables. Find out more. The only way Abreus case even comes close to approaching McGriffs is if you really give him a ton of credit for what he did in Cuba, where he spent most of his ABs against non-MLB quality pitchers. Gerrit Cole leads the list, with Corbin Burnes, Jacob DeGrom, and Carlos Rodon closely following the Yankees ace. Cespedes was put up about a 1.050 OPS from ages 22-24 in Cuba then .861 in his first year in MLB and .824 overall. Black struck out 29 batters in 22 innings in 2020, but if what he did over the summer is any indication, hell pile up many more in 2021. He was starting to put things together in 2019 with 58 strikeouts in 48.1 innings when he went down with injury, and hell look to pick that up in 2021. and he had a .964 OPS in his first season over. A big test for this position player group in pool play will be how they manage to do against the powerful pitching staff of Team Japan. He has always been able to make contact, evidenced by high batting averages and low strikeout rates, but he tapped into more power later in his career by increasing his launch angle. Shane Lewis Does it All in the Trojans 10th Straight Win He missed the first couple of months of the season with a toe injury, and also missed a month and a half with a hamstring injury. If it is just that he got to the states just as his peak was ending, then we are talking about a likely 1st ballot kind of guy. The only HOFer I saw that was behind him was Orlando Cepeda. As long as Im here, my general rule-of-thumb is that the only numbers that count outside of MLB come from Japan. Camels take series over Louisiana - Campbell University BA Newsletter: Get Analysis, Rankings Delivered To Your Inbox! document.write(update); Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted
Yeah, the Cuban #s is the rub. Helps me be friendly and charming in real life! In order to access this exclusive content you must have a Baseball America Account. as well as the sharp increase in strikeout rates starting around the 1992 season. Kang is very much a bat-first player who has adjusted his approach during his time in the KBO. Thats partially a function of the starting year, but also reflects the hitters in that era (Boggs, Gwynn, etc.) While watching the Mets pound on the Cubs yesterday, I noticed that David Wright still has a walk rate (BB%) higher than his strikeout rate (K%). "I'm not worried about them (the strikeouts). Defensively Lee has played exclusively in center field the last two seasons, and will likely line up in center for Team Korea. Big 12 Conference That, when applied to what I believe is a fair evaluation for foreign players who come to the U.S. at advanced ages, puts him squarely behind even a large hall standard. Web- Reggie Jackson (American League career leader for strikeouts) The most times an American League pitcher struck out during a single season was 65 times set in 1972, by Wilbur Wood of the Chicago White Sox. He wasnt hitting the ball as hard as he used to, so he wasnt getting as many hits. Follow him on Twitter @BillPetti. Strikeouts As for Abreu, the 20 WAR from ages 21-26 would pretty much just be him playing at his age 28-35 (so excluding his big rookie year) level. But theres no shortage of pitchers capable of taking their place. Christian Macleod, LHP, Mississippi State. Gurriels swing and o-swing rates jumped back up to where they once were. He came back down to earth a bit subsequently, but with what we know about hitters aging curves peaking at 25-26, he mightve missed out on 2 or more comparable-or-better years. In seven years with the Houston Astros, he won a Gold Glove, four American League pennants, and two World Series championships. The fact is hes looked like a very ordinary player next to major leaguers. Batting 2B:SAFFORD, Will 1 HR:DROST, Brody 1 RBI:DROST, Brody 3; DAVIS, Dalton 1; SAFFORD, Will 2 BASERUNNING: RUNS:DROST, Brody 1; CORONA, Jorge 1; MYERS, Adarius 1; SAFFORD, Will 1; MCLEOD, Logan 2 HBP:CORONA, Jorge 1 Ole Miss BATTING: 2B:Lege, Ethan1 3B:Groff, Ethan1 RBI:Groff, Ethan2; Harris, Calvin1; Calarco, Anthony1; Camels take series over Louisiana - Campbell University Was it because MLB pitchers got a better scouting report on him and were able to better exploit his weaknesses and turn him from a great hitter to merely a very good hitter, or was it because his peak was over by age 28 and the rest of his career was his decline phase? Its not far-fetched to imagine him coming up at 20 and putting up over 25 WAR before his MLB career actually began. Yet since moving stateside, Gurriel has worn just one uniform, and it still seems strange to think of him wearing any colors other than blue, orange, and white. MLB Along with Torra, Boone gave UC Santa Barbara quite the left-handed duo in 2020. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. 1. Alexei Ramirez low-900s age 22-24 in Cuba, .792 first year, .700 overall in MLB. In 1929, 80% of all qualified hitters had higher walk rates. Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports. Hes a bit more human than that. He swings more than the average hitter at pitches outside the zone and less than the average hitter at pitches inside the zone. In other words, he was better than average when it came to three of four possible outcomes groundballs, line drives, and balls not in play but he performed so dreadfully on fly balls that it dragged his numbers down to the basement. MLB Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. It would be more of a McGriff-like case than a Pujols-like case, but its worth considering, I think. Another step forward could put him among the countrys top arms in terms of strikeouts. Prielipp never got his chance to prove himself against SEC competition, but if his debut is any indication, hell be able to hold his own. I assume the next thing you say will be incredibly stupid (such as pretending Cuba and Japan are the same, I mean, seriously? Its kinda funny that theres really only been one case where this rule couldve applied, which was with Ichiro, but he just went ahead and had a hall-worthy career without even having to make that consideration. The fact that the Astros, who have for years stuck with him through his ups and downs, have moved on is probably the biggest indictment of where hes at right now. Ranking College Baseball's Potential Strikeout Leaders Alongside Hyun-soo Kim, who fans likely remember from his time in Baltimore, Byung-ho Park is the other position player with MLB experience. Yuli Gurriel has played professional baseball around the world, suiting up in Cuba and Japan before making his way to MLB. MLB dark horse MVP candidates for 2023 In the wake of those deals, fans have started to wonder which starting pitcher will own the 2023 season. I honestly dont know that anyone, anyone at all, has ever posted so many times without garnering even a small amount of support for any of the posts. How about pitchers from you favorite team have they ever led the league in strikeouts? Between the injuries Kang struggled to produce at the plate for the first time in his career, posting career lows in many categories in his statline. Four of 2022s five ERA leaders (Justin Verlander, Julio Uras, Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah) among starters with a minimum 130 IP had a +39% flyball rate and a Following up on his 2021 NL Cy Young Award-winning season, Burnes led the senior circuit in MLB for the 2022 season with 243 strikeouts. Baseball-Reference.com All reasonably close to that .200 to .250 range. Just for reference, there are 27 post-1947 1B who had at least 40 fWAR through age 32 (which is the early career production Guerriel would have needed to reach 50 career WAR). Moreover, since Gurriel rarely whiffs, he ended up making a ton of contact on pitches outside the strike zone. They'll happen. Many contend that some major names are missing from the list. Erla has been a durable arm for Michigan State for several years now, but he appeared to take a massive step forward in 2020, when he struck out 42 in 26 innings on the way to putting up a 1.04 ERA. Quad Cities River Bandits (Royals A+) 77-41, .653 5. I really though the time I spent volunteering helping children learn how to read was my most important charitable work, but teaching you what reality is might top that. So, conservatively, he would be Freddie Freeman, except for the whole thing where Freeman has been much better from age 27 onward. He is hurt disproportionately by having his MVP season in 2020, he was playing at a 7.8 fWAR pace, but only gets credit for 2.9. Between a breakout 2021 campaign and 2022, the journeyman reliever dropped his strong 9.6% walk rate to a miniscule 2.5%, good for best in the league. I also wouldnt limit the comparisons solely to first basemen. You really are shook that there is one person here that will stand up to your juvenile bullying and Gish Gallup style arguments. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Baseball UT Arlington Stats Baseball vs UT Arlington March 7, 2023 6 p.m. Fri, Mar 10 6:30 p.m. baseball WebSingle-Season Leaders & Records for Strikeouts | Baseball-Reference.com Single-Season Leaders & Records for Strikeouts Create your own custom leaderboards Become a This would all be easier if we had any idea how Cuban numbers translate. Thats an incredible drop. SO/9. Perkins doesnt have the track record of many of the pitchers on this list, as hes started just four games in his career, but hell have a chance to shine as a member of the Louisville weekend rotation in 2021. Hye-seong Kim has also played shortstop and left field in recent seasons, and could also pinch run for Team Korea in the WBC (he has three seasons of at least 30 steals, with a career best of 46). Do some soul searching on why you continue to be so insufferable? It's an excellent strikeout pitch and batters hit just .213 against it. I expect this is going to be something Jay Jaffe will be working on about 8 year from now. SB:Belbin, Jarrod1; Halstead, Tyler1; Howard, Payton1; Harrill, Lawson1 Louisiana BATTING: 2B:Kyle DeBarge 1; Julian Brock 1 RBI:Heath Hood 1; Mason Zambo 2; Trey LaFleur 1; Luke Yuhasz 1; Lee Amedee 1 SF:Trey LaFleur 1 BASERUNNING: RUNS:Kyle DeBarge 1; Carson Roccaforte 1; Heath Hood 2; Julian Brock 1; Luke Yuhasz 1 To a neutral observer, Barco might appear to be third in a potential Florida rotation that would include veteran righthanders Tommy Mace and Jack Leftwich, but his stuff makes him the most likely of the three to pile up massive strikeout numbers. I guess hes a Kluborg now. He was absolutely amazing in Cuba and definitely deserves to be in the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame. Camels take series over Louisiana. Bruins Edge Sacramento State, 3-2 - UCLA The fact is he came to the US and performed as a thoroughly average player, with stints of being above and well below average in between. Like we did last week with the home run race, here were taking stock of some of the top contenders to lead the nation in strikeouts in 2021. I especially enjoy that the lone downvote on the quote from Dans article mysteriously disappeared after I mentioned that it was a quote from one of Dans articles. Home We need your support to make FanGraphs sustainable so you can continue to enjoy all of the stats and tools you've Predicting the 2021 MLB strikeout leaders - MLB.com Accordingly, he walked more than twice as often as he did in the first five years of his career. 2021 MLB Pitching Stats & MLB Pitching Leaders You know who does? Was he hurt by the shortened season or helped by it? Web2021 Major League Baseball Batting Leaders | Baseball-Reference.com. At this point, its unlikely Gurriel will find a team willing to offer him regular at-bats, and he may have to settle for a minor league deal.