Nope, Nellie Fox never played for the Mets.
But we live in the day and age where today's players strike out a whole lot, and so Mr. Fox intrigued me.
For instance, in our present game of today, Pete Alonso struck out 183 times in 2019.
Mark Reynolds in 2009 truck out a whopping 223 times.
Nelly Fox, meanwhile, went to the plate in his career 10,351 times, and somehow, Mr. Contact managed to strike out only 216 times. No, I did not drop a zero. 216.
If you are into math, that works out to almost 98% of the time going to the plate and not striking out.
In 1958 he went to the plate 698 times and found just 11 times. Just 11 times! Freaky year? Nah...in 1951, he fanned just 11 times in 682 plate appearances.
Now THAT'S Fox News!
On top of that, in all the years he played, the 5’10”, 160 Hall of Famer never struck out more than 18 times in a season!
And we were excited about Jeff McNeil not striking out much last season. But McNeil struck out 75 times last year.
Well, Fox did fan 74 times...but that was from 1957 through 1962, spanning 6 seasons.
His career numbers weren’t overwhelming, with a career .288/.348/.363 split and only 76 steals in 156 attempts, but he somehow made the Hall anyway. Heck, in a 2 year stretch, Ruben Tejada hit a similar .286/.345/.347. Whoa, Nellie!
By the way, Fox’s career spanned from 1947 to 1965.
Mostly an AL guy, but his 1964 and 1965 seasons were with the NL Astros, so he did finally face the Mets.
In 53 plate appearances against the Metsies, he hit .304, but the Mets did something special.
They fanned him - once.
He was a six time .300 hitter, but who cares...much more impressively, in 9 seasons, he fanned 13 times or less.
Freaky.
Of course, baseball was much different in the old days.
For example, before Nellie's time, Walter "Big Train" Johnson, who went an astonishing 69-19 spanning 1912 and 1913, 50 games over .500 in just two seasons, had the career K record of 3,509 Ks, and clearly was baseball's strikeout king.
But that was in 5,914 innings, so he only averaged 5.34 Ks per 9 innings - in this day and age, I am not sure if any regular starter in 2019 was below 5.34. I doubt it.
If Nellie Fox played today, in his prime, and faced the Mets in 2019, with deGrom, Thor, Wheeler, and Diaz against him in a 3 game series, I wonder if he strikes out even once. My guess is, at least once.
Of course, baseball was much different in the old days.
For example, before Nellie's time, Walter "Big Train" Johnson, who went an astonishing 69-19 spanning 1912 and 1913, 50 games over .500 in just two seasons, had the career K record of 3,509 Ks, and clearly was baseball's strikeout king.
But that was in 5,914 innings, so he only averaged 5.34 Ks per 9 innings - in this day and age, I am not sure if any regular starter in 2019 was below 5.34. I doubt it.
If Nellie Fox played today, in his prime, and faced the Mets in 2019, with deGrom, Thor, Wheeler, and Diaz against him in a 3 game series, I wonder if he strikes out even once. My guess is, at least once.
9 comments:
Making contact seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of hitting the long ball. Granted, scouts get more excited by dingers than dribblers through the infield, but contact is contact.
sort of like Tony Gwynn
Mack, true on Gwynn, but believe it or not, Tony fanned at twice the rate. Probably if Fox played in the same era as Gwynn, he would have fanned as much.
Sadly both died young - Fox at 47, Gwynn at 54.
Reese, it seems that one could determine what the % increase was in annual MLB strikeouts per team in, say, 1950 and compare it to 2019, and see the increased rate. And assume half of it is due to harder throwers and half of it is due to fence swingers.
I much prefer the Mets fanning more than they did in punchless late 70s, early 80s, where they had two seasons with around 60 homers total - talk about boring and anemic. Last year ,the rate was more than quadruple that. And to me, it was exciting.
Would I prefer 25% fewer Ks for the 2019 Mets if it meant 60 fewer homers? More contact, less power? I dunno. I don't think so.
Imagine a guy like Nellie Fox today, with a career .363 slug % and 4 steals a year. Hall of Fame? Not a chance. He might have only been a utility player or part timer in today's game.
Then again, he is listed at 5'10 160. In todays game, he'd probably be bulked up to 185-190 and have much more power, like Jeff McNeil.
In 1975 Felix Millan played 162 games, 743 plate appearances, 28 Ks.
My thoughts on Tom's comment above: "Would I prefer 25% fewer Ks for the 2019 Mets if it meant 60 fewer homers? More contact, less power? I dunno. I don't think so."
I would prefer 25% fewer strikeouts. Pete Alonso would be a better hitter if he struck out 135 times instead of 183 across the same plate appearances. Those 45 to 50 at bats with balls in play would certainly not all fall into the fielders gloves. He hits the ball hard enough that a quarter to a third of them would be hits - probably half of them doubles. If he could get his strikeouts down to double digits, he would get to true superstardom.
Also, it depends on where in the order and what the situation is - I would like to see Rosario be a low K guy. McNeil for as good a hitter as he is should never have 75 k's in a year. Davis, Nimmo and Conforto will all have their strikeouts, but if they are leaving a lot of guys on base or are in key game situations, they are killers.
Bottom line . I don't like strikeouts. They are non-productive. A groundout to second or flyout to right with one out that moves a runner from 2nd to 3rd is a much better out than not putting the ball in play.
I don't think strikeouts and homeruns can be mutually exclusive. Many of today's hitters hit the ball so hard that they can slap it out by accident.
Remember 1969, I think McNeil fanning 75 times shows how hard it is to strike out less in this day and age. He was only in 133 games. Over 162 games, that is 91 for him. I wonder if McNeil played in Fox's era if his 75 Ks would have been 30 Ks instead.
So Pete will have a hard time cutting his Ks. He was over a K per game in every month except June. It would be a great question to ask him, though, if he thinks he can reduce his Ks much.
His number will remain high, because he wants to get in 160 games, if at all possible. He is ever hungry.
I think there are a combination of factors in play, but I go back to Barry Bonds as an example.
While Bonds has not played for 12 or so years, I do not think of him being in the earlier generation. Barry Bonds, while swatting 762 career homers had one season - his rookie one - when he struck out more than 100 times, and that was only 102. In 2004, the man hit 45 homers and struck out 41 times. Think what you might about the potential steroid use, but steroids do not change the strike zone. He was a superior talent who limited the strikeouts and maximized his other stats - yea, he drew a really crazy number of walks, but that was partially a result of his being difficult to strikeout.
Another note on McNeil - his strikeout percentage showed an uptick after the all-star break in 2019 when his average arguably plummeted in exchange for a few more homers. I prefer the pre-all-star break version of McNeil.
Remember 1969, very good points on Bonds and McNeil. Someone told me the rarest thing you’d ever see in BB was Bonds swinging and missing.
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