Obviously because you can't K before you get to 2 strikes, but, becoming a better hitter helps reduce strikeouts. That's the point. You become a better hitter, you put more balls in play. You're still going to strikeout and you're probably going to foul off a lot of pitches and probably draw more walks. But if a dude's looking to simply improve enough to learn to make better contact, he's probably not going to strikeout more than is normal for him. If he decides he wants to start putting balls over the fence more, then he's definitely going to put up more Ks.

Posted by bad_luck on 11/7/2017 4:25:00 PM (view original):

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Posted by bad_luck on 11/6/2017 12:57:00 PM (view original):

Posted by wylie715 on 11/6/2017 12:20:00 PM (view original):
I'm pretty sure players rarely try to make outs (sacrifice bunts are about the only situation I can think of) so how can they try to make less outs when they don't try to make any outs in the first place?

Wait, are you now arguing that hitters can't implement changes to their approach to try to get better results?

not sure how you got that out of what I posted, but I'm not sure how you get a lot of the things you post.

You’re asking if it’s possible for hitters to change their approach to make less outs.

since hitters don't try to make any outs how can they try to make less outs?

Alcides Escobar makes a **** load of outs. He should change his approach to be more selective at the plate and drive the ball in the air more.

That would likely result in more K’s but also more walks and a higher HR rate and BABIP.

Escobar makes a shitload of outs, but do you think he ever goes to the plate trying to make an out? I don't. I gues he might be in a few sacrifice bunt situations where he is trying to make an out (but a productive out) but the vast majority of the time he is not trying to make an out. He just sucks so he usually does.

So you're arguing that because hitters aren't trying to make outs, there's nothing they could change that would possibly improve their chances of reaching base?

No. Never said that. Players can change their approach, but they aren't trying to make less outs since they don't try to make any outs in the first place. They can try to improve their contact rate or try to improve their plate discipline. whether or not it works is another story. Show me a player who tries to make any outs when they bat (other than the rare sacrifice bunt) and I'll show you a player who never plays organized ball.

Pedantic.

If a guy changes his approach, the goal is to get better. One way hitters can get better is to make less outs. In essence, an approach change is an attempt to make less outs.

For instance, you think that if Judge finds a way to shorten up his swing and reduce his K rate, he'll make less outs.

I think that if Alcides Escobar is more selective at the plate and drives the ball more, he'll make less outs (even though his K rate might go up) and hit for more power.

I'd like you to show me where I said Judge should find a way to shorten his swing. All I said is he should try to make adjustments to get better. what those adjustments might be I have no idea. I don't know enough about baseball to suggest how Aaron Judge could get better other than to say cutting down on strike outs might help him improve as a player. It may not too. Becoming more aggressive might help him too. Who knows?

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/7/2017 8:18:00 AM (view original):

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Posted by MikeT23 on 11/6/2017 1:28:00 PM (view original):
I'm assuming the season after he said "I want to cut down on strikeouts" but, truthfully, I don't know. I just assumed tec knew what he was talking about. I didn't look it up.

So you don't know if he cut his K's and improved his OPS?

Are you saying tec was incorrect?

Do you think I can't look it up?

Well...you don't even know what years to compare...so I guess you could try.

FWIW, Trout never significantly cut down on his strikeouts. He's always floated around low to mid 20%. 22, 22, 19, 26, 23, 20, and then 18 this year. Even when he went from 26% to 23%, it was only a difference of 26 Ks over the course of 700+ PAs.

Looks to me he dropped from 26% of his AB to 18% of his AB. You don't think that's noticeable?

The year over year numbers aren't that different, at least not different enough to argue that a normal variance in K rate deserves credit for a slight increase in production.

2012 - 22% K - .963 OPS
2013 - 19% K - .989 OPS
2014 - 26% K - .938 OPS
2015 - 23% K - .992 OPS
2016 - 20% K - .991 OPS
2017 - 18% K - 1.071 OPS

His career average K rate is 21.5. His average OPS is .976. The biggest difference between his best year and his worst year is his home run rate.

I just want to quote this again because "If he changed his approach, it didn't show in the results" is so ignorantly funny.

If Trout's OPS had dropped in line with his strikeout rate dropping from 2014-2017, you know BL would be all over it with "See how changing his approach was a bad idea? TOLD YA SO!!!!!"

But when the opposite happens, he's unable to see the obvious trend.

This is so funny. And he has no clue about why.