January 21, 201511 yr http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/colby-rasmu...and-strikeouts/ As a quick aside, look toward the bottom of the table. Four teams in particular project to substantially reduce their strikeout rates. Those teams, compared to themselves in 2014: White Sox: -1.4 standard deviations Giants: -1.4 Braves: -1.6 Red Sox: -1.9 The research also points out that strikeouts aren't really correlated with differences in projected offense, though. Which really seems kind of self-explanatory to me, because obviously the effect of those strikeouts is baked in from the start, but whatever.
January 21, 201511 yr It's not a bad thing though. At the very minimum, it puts more balls in play which will increase the opportunities for hits. If it's an infield fly, it won't matter as much as those are outs 99% of the time too. The White Sox have brought better hitters in, so the reduction in strikeouts shouldn't be much of a revelation.
January 21, 201511 yr Author QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 10:26 AM) It's not a bad thing though. At the very minimum, it puts more balls in play which will increase the opportunities for hits. If it's an infield fly, it won't matter as much as those are outs 99% of the time too. The White Sox have brought better hitters in, so the reduction in strikeouts shouldn't be much of a revelation. Yeah, it's just usually such a topic around here, I thought people would be interested in knowing that the team is built to make much more contact than it has recently. A lot of that might just be NOT having Dunn though, lol.
January 21, 201511 yr QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 09:34 AM) Yeah, it's just usually such a topic around here, I thought people would be interested in knowing that the team is built to make much more contact than it has recently. A lot of that might just be NOT having Dunn though, lol. Dunn being replaced by LaRoche is a big one. De Aza being replaced by Cabrera is another big difference too. As we saw with Jeff Keppinger though, merely making contact doesn't guarantee that it's good contact.
January 21, 201511 yr Author QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 10:42 AM) Dunn being replaced by LaRoche is a big one. De Aza being replaced by Cabrera is another big difference too. As we saw with Jeff Keppinger though, merely making contact doesn't guarantee that it's good contact. Indeed, indeed. Welp, that was another fun little crirclejerk we just had, lol.
January 21, 201511 yr The biggest example of less strikeouts not automatically meaning more offense is right there in the numbers with the Braves. They are said to possibly have the worst offense in baseball next year, but are also projected to drop their K rate substantially. However, in context, we can see the Sox actually ADDED a few of upgrades offensively, while the Braves removed many of them.
January 21, 201511 yr QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 10:04 AM) Indeed, indeed. Welp, that was another fun little crirclejerk we just had, lol. I love circlejerks
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