Two True Outcomes

With the offense struggling and a need for some power, the Mariners recently turned their right field job over to young slugger Wladimir Balentien. No one has ever questioned Balentien’s raw power, as he can hit a baseball a country mile, but his approach at the plate has been suspect over the years. He’s made a lot of strides, cutting down on his strikeouts and laying off of breaking balls down and away, but he’s still an aggressive, swing-from-the-heels kind of guy.

Since coming to Seattle, he’s hit .212/.255/.486 thanks to an odd line where four his 11 hits have left the yard, but he’s struck out 19 times in 52 at-bats while only drawing three walks. Wily Mo Pena is the personification of this skillset, and while Balentien has a better approach to hitting than WMP, that’s the kind of production he’s giving the Mariners right now. However, Wily Mo isn’t the only low average, low on base, high slugging guy running around.

I ran Baseball Reference’s Play Index to get a list of all players in the last 20 years with at least 300 plate appearances, a batting average of less than .250, and an ISO of greater than .250. This gave me 27 guys who have posted a higher isolated slugging percentage than batting average in a given season, and Balentien looks like he has the potential to join that group. There are some of the usual names on that list that you would guess, such as Mark McGwire, Rob Deer, and Adam Dunn, all of whom are known for being all or nothing hitters. But there are also some guys on the list I wouldn’t have guessed, such as:

1997 Jose Cruz Jr, who .251/.315/.499 in his rookie season with Seattle and Toronto. When you think of big power guys, Cruz Jr doesn’t exactly spring to mind, but he’s actually not a bad comparison for Balentien, although the Mariners are certainly hoping to get more from this young RF than they did from the last one.

2004 Jose Valentin, who put up a .216/.287/.473 line. Not surprisingly, Valentin is the only middle infielder on this list, as the power/strikeout combination isn’t one you generally find playing a premium defensive position.

1996 Willie Greene, who had one of the hilarious lines of all time. 29 extra base hits, with 19 of them being home runs compared to just 5 doubles in 287 at-bats. It’s almost unheard of to get four times as many home runs as doubles in a single season, but Green pulled it off.

Overall, these guys were all productive in the seasons that they posted the ISO higher than their average, as its hard to hit for that much power and not be at least sort of useful, but it’s also not a list of guys who had long, sustained careers. Balentien’s going to want to work on cutting down the strikeouts if he wants to be more than a curiosity on a similar list in 20 years.