Mark Reynolds is the next Mike Schmidt - Page 2

devilalum · June 27th, 2009, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bankybruce

I still do not see your point. If he hits 45 HR's and bats .270, who cares how many strikeouts he has. He is also gong lead the team in RBI's, SB's and Runs. Schmidt at one time was #2 on the single season K record and he turned out ok.

Balls put in play can move runners, strikeouts do nothing. All I'm sayin is he can be even better. I bet he'd have a dozen more RBIs if he struck out half as much.

BC867 · June 27th, 2009, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devilalum

Balls put in play can move runners, strikeouts do nothing. All I'm sayin is he can be even better. I bet he'd have a dozen more RBIs if he struck out half as much.

Interesting discussion. Remember, Babe Ruth was the strikeout leader of his time.

Power hitters, of course, tend to put the ball in the air more often, which usually doesn't move runners.

But strikeouts and errors, in Mark's case, are the price for the RBI's, runs scored and stolen bases. How I wish we had a cleanup hitter, so Reynolds could bat in the spot most suited for him, #5.

A solid 3-4-5 combination puts a team into contention. A solid 3-4 leaves the team lacking. Neither Drew nor Parra are suited for the middle of the batting order.

Aside from our pathetic bullpen, I believe this is our second most glaring deficiency and why our record is one of the worst in MLB.

82CardsGrad · June 27th, 2009, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BC867

Interesting discussion. Remember, Babe Ruth was the strikeout leader of his time.

Power hitters, of course, tend to put the ball in the air more often, which usually doesn't move runners.

But strikeouts and errors, in Mark's case, are the price for the RBI's, runs scored and stolen bases. How I wish we had a cleanup hitter, so Reynolds could bat in the spot most suited for him, #5.

A solid 3-4-5 combination puts a team into contention. A solid 3-4 leaves the team lacking. Neither Drew nor Parra are suited for the middle of the batting order.

Aside from our pathetic bullpen, I believe this is our second most glaring deficiency and why our record is one of the worst in MLB.

1.) Chris Young
2.) Everything else...

DWKB · June 28th, 2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devilalum

Balls put in play can move runners, strikeouts do nothing. All I'm sayin is he can be even better. I bet he'd have a dozen more RBIs if he struck out half as much.

This is a silly assumption. He could easily lose his tempo or aggressiveness and end up with two dozen less RBIs.

Balls in play can advance a runner, which adds a minimum chance increasing your runs produced vs GIDP that drastically reduces your runs produced argues against you.

BTW, according to baseball-reference.com Mark Reynolds #1 similar player at age 24 is Mike Schmidt (and the other way around), but that doesn't guarantee he will have the same career and become a HOF like Schmidt. Scmidt was hounded his whole career for striking out too much by the fickle and largely uneducated Philly fan base.

DWKB · June 28th, 2009, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BC867

How I wish we had a cleanup hitter, so Reynolds could bat in the spot most suited for him, #5.

You keep saying this and I keep asking you for backing reasoning. You've yet to address this counter to your theory about this:

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/...2&postcount=12

DWKB · June 28th, 2009, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 82CardsGrad

1.) Chris Young
2.) Everything else...

Not for the month of June at least:

.258/.395/.532/.927 in 76 PAs

82CardsGrad · June 28th, 2009, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWKB

Not for the month of June at least:

.258/.395/.532/.927 in 76 PAs

Too bad a MLB season is just slightly more than 20 games...

bankybruce · June 28th, 2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWKB

This is a silly assumption. He could easily lose his tempo or aggressiveness and end up with two dozen less RBIs.

Balls in play can advance a runner, which adds a minimum chance increasing your runs produced vs GIDP that drastically reduces your runs produced argues against you.

BTW, according to baseball-reference.com Mark Reynolds #1 similar player at age 24 is Mike Schmidt (and the other way around), but that doesn't guarantee he will have the same career and become a HOF like Schmidt. Scmidt was hounded his whole career for striking out too much by the fickle and largely uneducated Philly fan base.

Excellent post.

BC867 · June 28th, 2009, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWKB

You keep saying this and I keep asking you for backing reasoning. You've yet to address this counter to your theory about this:
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/...2&postcount=12

I notice you proposed Tracy/Byrnes hitting third ahead of Reynolds at cleanup. But, in all fairness, Upton had not yet been given the opportunity to prosper with a regular spot in the heart of the batting order.

My whole reasoning about Reynolds being best suited for #5 is the pitch-around factor. As all-around hot as Upton has been batting third, it is easy to give him plenty of intentional unintentional walks and take their chances with one power hitter following him, Reynolds and his high strikeout total.

Also two righties in a row is not ideal in the 3-4 spot.

If, on the other hand, we had a left-handed hitting real power threat (not Drew obviously) between Upton and Reynolds, we would see far less pitching around. You can pitch around only so many hitters in the heart of the order without having it bite you.

It also means that Reynolds' team leading stolen base figure would be opening 1B for the 6-7-8 hitters if he hit 5th, rather than the 5-6-7-8 hitters.

Again, too many pitch-around possibilities.

I've been a red hot NL baseball fan since I was a pre-teener in 1952. In all that time, heart-of-the-batting order has always meant 3-4-5. Only the weak teams have it at #3 or #4 or #3-4.

I'm curious if you agree with any of those points, DWKB.

DWKB · June 29th, 2009, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 82CardsGrad

Too bad a MLB season is just slightly more than 20 games...

Your CY "go to" does nothing to explain why the DBacks have only won 7 games this month.

DWKB · June 29th, 2009, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BC867

I notice you proposed Tracy/Byrnes hitting third ahead of Reynolds at cleanup. But, in all fairness, Upton had not yet been given the opportunity to prosper with a regular spot in the heart of the batting order.

My whole reasoning about Reynolds being best suited for #5 is the pitch-around factor. As all-around hot as Upton has been batting third, it is easy to give him plenty of intentional unintentional walks and take their chances with one power hitter following him, Reynolds and his high strikeout total.

Also two righties in a row is not ideal in the 3-4 spot.

If, on the other hand, we had a left-handed hitting real power threat (not Drew obviously) between Upton and Reynolds, we would see far less pitching around. You can pitch around only so many hitters in the heart of the order without having it bite you.

It also means that Reynolds' team leading stolen base figure would be opening 1B for the 6-7-8 hitters if he hit 5th, rather than the 5-6-7-8 hitters.

Again, too many pitch-around possibilities.

I've been a red hot NL baseball fan since I was a pre-teener in 1952. In all that time, heart-of-the-batting order has always meant 3-4-5. Only the weak teams have it at #3 or #4 or #3-4.

I'm curious if you agree with any of those points, DWKB.

I do agree that Reynolds SB could be more useful at the 5th spot rather than the 4th spot for sure and if you can construct it as such an alternating handedness is ideal for a line up.

I don't understand the "pitch around" factor of suggesting him hit 5th, though. It's much more likely you'll see a weaker hitter in the 6th slot than you would the 5th slot so how would moving him down in the order prevent pitch around situations? The pitch around argument seems to break down to getting more hitters into the lineup. I think every manager and GM in MLB wants that if they could have it.

I think AJ and Josh have worked out a really nice 1-5 of:

Lopez
Drew
Upton
Reynolds
Parra

although I'd swap Upton and Drew (would help with BC867's alternating handedness desire).

82CardsGrad · June 29th, 2009, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWKB

Your CY "go to" does nothing to explain why the DBacks have only won 7 games this month.

"nothing"?? Really?? How many runs have the D-backs scored this month? This year??
And what would that number have been had we had an actual legit Major League centerfielder who can put up respectable on-base %'s and batting averages?

"Nothing"?? Hardly...

DWKB · June 29th, 2009, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 82CardsGrad

"nothing"?? Really?? How many runs have the D-backs scored this month?

Well they've scored 118 Runs this month, good for 11th in MLB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 82CardsGrad

And what would that number have been had we had an actual legit Major League centerfielder who can put up respectable on-base %'s and batting averages?

Again, considering CY put up a batting line of .258/.395/.532/.927 in the month of June I would think only an idiot would think that wasn't respectable considering it placed him 6th for all CFers and 39th for all MLB hitters in OPS.

Maybe, just maybe, we should be looking elsewhere for why they've only won 7 games this month. Like maybe being 21st in ERA and first in Errors committed?