SWC75
Bored Historian
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SI.com had this article in last week's edition:
Joey Gallo Stats | Baseball-Reference.com
I’m pretty dubious about this new outlook. as I hate the walk-to-strikeout ratios these days but they say runs per team game has risen from 4.07 to 4.65 since 2014. Here is a misleading stat from the article: Joey Gallo ”batted .458 on balls in the air and .164 on balls on the ground.” He batted .209 overall: Joey Gallo Stats | Baseball-Reference.com
That makes it sound as if his uppercut swing produced more ground balls than fly balls. It ignores the fact that he had 196 strike-outs. Gallo: “A lot of people disagree with that approach…but that’s just how I am. I’m going up there and taking my A swing every time.” In another part of the article it says that last year a record 6,105 ‘dingers’ were hit last year. There were 3,023 fewer ground balls and 3,157 more fly balls than in 2015 “and few complaints about the tariff for all that lifting: 2,658 more strikeouts.”
I don’t know if line drives were included in the fly balls. If I were a major league hitter I’d rather be a line drive hitter: some will reach the fence. Others will be hard to handle for fielders. You’d get plenty of doubles and triples, which have almost the same effect as home runs. And I don’t care what you philosophy is strike-outs don’t help you score. Gallo hit 41 home runs last year- and drove in 80 runs. 40 ‘dingers’ is about 1.5 per week. I think it’s important what you do for your team when you aren’t hitting those home runs.
Joey Gallo Stats | Baseball-Reference.com
I’m pretty dubious about this new outlook. as I hate the walk-to-strikeout ratios these days but they say runs per team game has risen from 4.07 to 4.65 since 2014. Here is a misleading stat from the article: Joey Gallo ”batted .458 on balls in the air and .164 on balls on the ground.” He batted .209 overall: Joey Gallo Stats | Baseball-Reference.com
That makes it sound as if his uppercut swing produced more ground balls than fly balls. It ignores the fact that he had 196 strike-outs. Gallo: “A lot of people disagree with that approach…but that’s just how I am. I’m going up there and taking my A swing every time.” In another part of the article it says that last year a record 6,105 ‘dingers’ were hit last year. There were 3,023 fewer ground balls and 3,157 more fly balls than in 2015 “and few complaints about the tariff for all that lifting: 2,658 more strikeouts.”
I don’t know if line drives were included in the fly balls. If I were a major league hitter I’d rather be a line drive hitter: some will reach the fence. Others will be hard to handle for fielders. You’d get plenty of doubles and triples, which have almost the same effect as home runs. And I don’t care what you philosophy is strike-outs don’t help you score. Gallo hit 41 home runs last year- and drove in 80 runs. 40 ‘dingers’ is about 1.5 per week. I think it’s important what you do for your team when you aren’t hitting those home runs.