The Kings of Non-Contact

The new “Past Calendar Year” addition to the leaderboards is tremendous. If you haven’t played around with it yet, what are you waiting for?

Here’s my fun revelation of the day. In the last year, here are the league leaders in strikeout totals for hitters.

1. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia – 236 strikeouts in 623 at-bats, 37.7% K%
2. Jack Cust, Oakland – 192 strikeouts in 490 at-bats, 39.2% K%
3. Mark Reynolds, Arizona -192 strikeouts in 509 at-bats, 37.7% K%

After those three, the dropoff in strikeout rate is huge. Mike Cameron is #4 with a 32.6% K%, not even in the same ballpark as Howard, Cust, and Reynolds. But how many people really think of the Arizona third baseman as a Cust/Howard level swing-and-miss machine? I certainly didn’t, at least until looking at this leaderboard.

It wasn’t exactly easy to see this coming either. During his 1216 minor league at-bats in 2004 to 2007, Reynolds posted a 24% K%. With guys who have huge holes in their swings, such as Cust and Branyan, we knew they were strikeout monsters even before they got to the big show. But Reynolds – he didn’t start racking up the Ks until he got to Arizona.

Unlike with Cust, who racks up the strikeouts because he just never swings (34% Swing%, which is just hilarious) and gets deep in counts, Reynolds has legitimate problems making contact. His 63.78% contact rate is the worst in the majors, with only Howard’s 64.35% even within shouting distance.

Because he’s able to drive the ball consistently, he’s still a productive hitter even with the contact issues, but it’s something that Arizona’s coaching staff should be working with him on. It’s very hard to have a sustained career with that kind of low rate of contact, and Reynolds doesn’t draw walks like Cust or Howard to offset some of the strikeouts. If he continues to swing and miss at this rate, it won’t be too long before he’s hitting .210 or .220 due to BABIP variations and, at that point, his job will be in jeopardy.