Posted by strikeout26 on 7/26/2019 1:50:00 PM (view original):
It may make more analytical sense long term to have a guy strong out as opposed to hit a ground ball, but there's not much worse than reading the play-by-play and having runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and your 4-hole strikes out.
Except having the bases loaded with one out and your 4-hole hits into a DP.
Seriously-- there isn't a dime's worth of difference, long term. Ground outs also advance runners... the Bill James simulation study that's often cited in defense of Ks showed that Ks were better than groundouts overall but by an unbelievably tiny margin. I don't think it's worth investing energy in hitters that do or don't strikeout vs. groundout... spend that time finding players who don't make outs in the first place.