Big and hairy

Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun reports that Buck Showalter of the Orioles likes (sounds more like "kind of" likes) new third baseman, Mark Reynolds.

"It's like Billy Martin said, 'You have to be careful liking players that are too much like you'. We're all so in love with the scrappy old infielders. You have to have to some big hairy guys too."

I agree 100% but it is obvious to me that Buck doesn't know what "big and hairy" really is though.

So Mark Reynolds could end the season with a higher strikeout total (currently 208) than batting average (.198)?

"Well isn't that special?"

The guy struck out 34% of the time!

I see that Mark Reynolds of the Diamondbacks struck out three times yesterday and finished with 223 strikeouts for the year obliterating the previous record set by him last year by 19 strikeouts.

I wonder if he thinks that he has some things to work on this off-season. I know that he hit 44 home runs and had 102 rbis but he STRUCK OUT 223 TIMES! That is 223 at-bats in one year that a major leaguer could not hit the ball fair.

Look, Dave Kingman hit a lot of home runs, some of them pretty far, but nobody really respected his game. I don't know that he is someone to emulate.

The strikeout as an offensive weapon

Tim Brown at Yahoo Sports has a recent article on Arizona Diamondbacks free-swinging third baseman Mark Reynolds who set the major league record for strikeouts in a season last year with 204 and is on pace to strike out 220 times this year.

The article contains this gem of a quote from Reynolds: "I don't see how it's such a bad thing. Whoever made that up*, that it's such a bad thing to strike out, is full of crap."

I guess the strikeout gets a bad rap and really needs a new press agent! And all these years we thought a strikeout was bad!

Though he doesn't come right out and say it, I am guessing that Reynolds is saying that 202 strikeouts is an acceptable trade-off for the 38 home runs that he hit last year. For Reynolds, there is no such thing as shortening the swing with two strikes, going with the pitch, hitting to the opposite field, moving along runners etc. Doing all this would interfere with his ability to hit home runs. He can do that one thing well so his development as a player is essentially over.

Reynolds only hit .239 last year and he is not considered to be a good defensive player so aside from his marginal speed (22 stolen bases this year so far), his power is all that he really brings to the table. Probably a step above Rob Deer and Pete Incaviglia but not much (though I do see that Reynolds is bringing his average up this year). He also does not walk a lot like Adam Dunn who is another high strikeout guy but walks a ton which mitigates the strikeouts quite a bit. With Reynolds, do you carry a guy who strikes out 40% of the time so to get his 38 home runs? That is a nice figure but not an enormous amount of home runs.

I think Ted Williams is the pretty much the gold standard for hitting. Would Williams who struck out an average of 38 times a year approve of this new theory which elevates strikeouts to the level of "not a bad thing"? I think we know the answer to that.**

*Nobody really needed to "make it up" as it is kind of an obvious truth.

**Yes, I know that we would have to unfreeze Ted and have him reassembled to get the definitive answer but work with me here, ok?

You knew this was going to happen

Last night, Mark Reynolds hit two more home runs. That is seven in seven games.

Who knows how many he would have hit Sunday had his manager thought it prudent to put him in the lineup.

Oy!

The guy is on an incredible hot streak. Let's sit him down.

Per Steve Gilbert at mlb.com, Mark Reynolds, third baseman of the Diamondbacks was given a night off Sunday after hitting 5 home runs in the previous 6 games.

"I know physically he could use a day off or at least a start off," said A. J. Hinch, manager of the Diamondbacks.

"It's a good time to give him some blow," Hinch said. "He's played every game since the All-Star Game, he's diving into the stands, rolling over tarps, been playing with a sore top hand."

The guy has 5 home runs in his last 6 games! I am far removed from that situation but I really don't think that top hand has been much of a problem for him.

A.J. Hinch, who has been a major league manager for all of 76 games has apparently used all of that accumulated knowledge in deciding to sit this guy down.

Cool the engines. That always works.