1. We break down the top 25 candidates. WebGrover Cleveland Alexander led the National League in strikeouts six times in nine seasons. Leiter has the stuff to give Vanderbilt a second contender, with Rocker, to top the strikeout list. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Thats not a super-strong number, but I think its a conservative estimate and would still garner him some HOF support. Matchup History. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Could see him getting the McGriff treatment, WAR be damned. If there were some World Baseball Hall of Fame, hed also have a very good case. If the Marlins are still calling, hed be wise to pick up the phone. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Gerrit Cole leads the list, with Corbin Burnes, Jacob DeGrom, and Carlos Rodon closely following the Yankees ace. At the plate, Rutschmans batting eye is extremely sharp, as evidenced by his 13.8% walk rate and 18.3% strikeout rate. The first is Jung-hoo Lee, a 24-year-old outfielder for the Kiwoom Heroes. After turning in an outstanding freshman season in 2019, Boone appeared to take a step forward in 2020, striking out 13.08 batters per nine innings after punching out 8.89 per nine innings as a freshman. His performance on grounders was down relative to his career numbers but was still comfortably above average. However, Team Korea has made sure to fill the roster with some of the best defensive players in the country, particularly ones who grade out as MLB average or better. Im not sure either Gurriel or Abreu have the career numbers to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but lets make sure were considering all the times they played this grand game. Because you got me looking at it, if you order their seasons by wRC+ over 130 (ignoring their 2020 MVP years) between Abreu and Freeman it goes. by Handedness, The Outlook Isnt So Good for Yuli Gurriel, Glasnow, Musgrove Go Down With Early Injuries in Blow to Playoff Contenders, Prospect Report: Diamondbacks 2023 Imminent Big Leaguers. The only HOFer I saw that was behind him was Orlando Cepeda. Im just saying that projecting 20 WAR in this make-believe world is not conservative at all. Camels take series over Louisiana. What was the offensive environment? 169 72 66 16 46 247. Give him 4-5 more years from age 21-26 & yeah, I can see it..IF he had played in MLB. His supporters think that during the three year run where he hit 98 bombs in 232 games (A 68.4/162 pace) while batting .412 BA with a .561 OBP, he was probably closer to his age-27 form (.313/.383/.581, after a yearlong layoff following his defection) than the .289/.375/.472 line Freeman put up at the same ages. Yuli Gurriel has played professional baseball around the world, suiting up in Cuba and Japan before making his way to MLB. Be the first one to comment on this story. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted In 2021, Ohtani recorded just nine wins in 23 starts but notched 15 in 28 appearances last season. In 2022, he was still good at the things he did well, but he was worse than ever at what he already did poorly. Home He was 33 when he joined the Astros. Join our linker program. I assume the next taek will be Why does anyone think he would have been better than Aaron Judge from 21-24, when he was way worse from 27-30???????. Torra quickly established himself as a dominant force after transferring from junior college. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. Like, youre Leos character in Shutter Island-level deluded. Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. And I no more summarily dismissed his case than youve summarily endorsed it. 12 UCLA past Sacramento State, 3-2, on In 2023, however, hes hoping to prolong his big-league career with a new ball club. The KBO is not a league known for having elite defense. To be fair, he didnt get his MLB chance until long after his peak seasons. On groundballs and line drives, Gurriel was perfectly fine. This list is about half HOFers and the stretch around Gurriel illustrates that he likely would have been a guy who is at least in the conversation. He has not done anything to suggest that we actually did miss one of the great hitters of all time because he was stuck in Cuba. It wouldnt be surprising if at least a few of the current six players didnt manage to hold on through the end of this season. Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports. But thats not this. On the other hand, due to injury, he has only pitched in three games since the end of that season. He has put up 10 WAR in 7 seasons. Beyond the MLB players and potential future stars, Team Korea has some veteran players rounding out the lineup from the KBO. Strikeouts/9 Innings Carlos Rodn. WebExplore Atlanta Braves stats and team leaders on FOXSports.com, including home runs, rbi, strikeouts and more. South Korea is typically a strong nation in international baseball competitions, and this years World Baseball Classic team is a favorite to advance out of their pool. as well as the sharp increase in strikeout rates starting around the 1992 season. KANSAS CITY, Mo. SF. Look, perhaps a player in Cuba is a sadder story than a player in Japan, but we dont put guys in the hall of fame just because they were amazing in Japan and then above average in the U.S. How can Abreu get some special treatment when Hideki Matsui, who absolutely crushed much better completion in Japan before coming over and being an above average player even though at 29 he was likely past his prime. Ever wonder who had the most strikeouts the year you were born? Its easy to point to Gurriels 2021 season and identify the 38-year-old as a prime bounce-back candidate. Once heralded as a five-tool player, Gurriel was a shell of his former self. Presumably, Solano took the roster spot and the salary that might have otherwise gone to Gurriel. He had 24 strikeouts in 20 innings last season, but with a good handle on three offerings, theres potential for that strikeout rate to skyrocket next season. Through the power of anonymous downvoting and ad hom meltdowns, you truly stand tall against the myriad bullies who disagree with your pre-existing assumptions, and then provide the datapoints resulting in that disagreement. For more context, since 2006, he ranks 50th in WAR for ages 32-38. To make matters worse, Gurriels problems at the plate were exacerbated by bad plate discipline. What Ivan is alluding to is that if Yuli had been able to get out and join an MLB roster in his 20s, he probably would have had a case for the HoF. As it stands now, no way, but, the dicussion is interesting. Past that, if youre a person who DOES want to just play the conversion game straight up and then treat his pre-age-27 accomplishments as equivalent for HOF purposes, I believe a statement that him earning 20 WAR would be a conservative estimate is belied by how few first baseman have done that. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. Many thanks to him. Cusick struck out 43 batters in 22.1 innings in 2020 and only improved his stock as a potential strikeout king with his performance over the summer, when he struck out 40 in 23.1 innings in the Coastal Plain League thanks to a fastball that was up to 96 mph and a slider thats above average at its best. As in, the dictionary meaning, where I wouldnt believe it if I hadnt seen how awesome hes become. Pujols had over 45 WAR through his age 26 season. He is not a threat on the bases, and he has lost range in the outfield. The righthander might have had the best abbreviated season of anyone in 2020, as he put up a 0.32 ERA and .128 opponent batting average with 47 strikeouts and only three walks in 28 innings. Now 36 years old, Park is still hitting the ball hard as he led the KBO in hard hit rate last year at 41%, while also finishing second in average exit velocity (just under 90 MPH) and sixth in average launch angle (just over 18 degrees). Simply speaking, Mantiply has become the epitome of control. Large caveats obviously apply, but there is at least a reason to think he had a good HOF case. Team Korea will also rely on a veteran behind the plate, with 14-year veteran catcher Eui-ji Yang of the NC Dinos. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors He still possesses elite contact skills, but those skills are far less valuable when hes swinging at worse pitches and hitting without thump. Yet as he enters his age-39 season, theres a reason teams have been hesitant to offer him a guaranteed role. He only has 1 season over 5 fWAR and unlike Gurriel he played his traditional peak years in MLB. Fair enough, I was just thinking about it in terms of his total WAR over the period relative to the historical comps. At 362 career home runs, he is only 12 behind Dae-ho Lee for third all-time. Its not too late to win your mothers love. Did you think I thought they gave me an extra infield?" Charleston RiverDogs (Rays A), 82-38, .683 3. Lee is the best pure hitter in the KBO, with a career batting average of .342 and more career walks than strikeouts. Ahead of a test this weekend at the Frisco Classic, the Bulldogs are starting to build consistency. Erla has been a durable arm for Michigan State for several years now, but he appeared to take a massive step forward in 2020, when he struck out 42 in 26 innings on the way to putting up a 1.04 ERA. If it could be shown that a player really was likely one of the very best, based on how they played in the US compared to players only looking at the same ages, I think that should be a factor in HOF close calls. The man is a bat-to-ball machine; he rarely strikes out and almost never whiffs. With Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox gone from the Georgia pitching staff, Cannon will have his chance to shine in 2021. I agree that theres no HoF case here, but I think there may well have been had he played in MLB from an early age (with access to the requisite training etc. His fastball was up to 96 mph last season, and while the fact that hes 23 years old Will Hurt him from a draft standpoint, that experience can only help in his pursuit to fly up the strikeout leaderboards. Felt like he wouldve had a Vlad type of career. In his free time, he writes for The Hardball Times, speaks about baseball research and analytics, has consulted for a Major League Baseball team, and has appeared on MLB Network's Clubhouse Confidential as well as several MLB-produced documentaries. There actually is a lot of precedent for letting people in, even though their numbers werent up to the standard, because they were barred from joining in one way or another. No longer could his other skills pick up the slack. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. I then included the strikeout, walk, and home run rates for each season as well to see if they helped explain the trends we see. Leo is a writer for FanGraphs and an editor for Just Baseball. He took a lot of criticism for, how he reacted to Koreas disappointing fourth- place finish in the Tokyo Olympics. Dudes improvement in his late 20s is truly incredible. Context for TKDCs opinions on Abreus HoF chances should include the weeks he spent claiming that Beltrans 400 bombs and 2700 hits meant that no traditional voter would have ever considered him as a viable candidate, even without the scandal. We break down the top 25 candidates. For what its worth, Freeman wasnt really a late bloomer, he was posting a 150 wRC+ at age 23 and has been a pretty consistent player since then. It makes sense when a batter hits bad pitches, hes more likely to make bad contact. Id love for the completely unknowable downvoter to explain why they disagree with Dan Szymborkski, and instead think that because answering a question is difficult, we shouldnt try to answer it at all. Park signed a four-year deal with the Minnesota Twins before 2016, but struggled in his limited MLB opportunities. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. The Alabama lefthander was a big catalyst behind the Crimson Tides scalding-hot start to the season. Citing a player who peaked from 26-32 is such a hilariously poor response to the premise that Abreu may have come over after his prime that I honestly have to wonder whether you even read the initial comment, haha. WebThe following chart is a comprehensive breakdown of both leagues showing who led in strikeouts from 1876 through last season, with all recorded seasons being shown. I expect this is going to be something Jay Jaffe will be working on about 8 year from now. If the righthander can keep that pace up over an entire season, hell have one of the highest strikeout totals in the country and it will bode well for the Shockers being a force in 2021. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? His peak would have had to have been one of the best of all time to get him to even 50 WAR. Oh, taking the piss out of jackasses who seem genuinely incapable of engaging with information that doesnt align with their pre-existing assumptions is how I destress! The lowest percentage the league has ever seen was in 2010, when only Joe Mauer, Jeff Keppinger, Daric Barton, and Albert Pujols pulled it off (3% of all qualified hitters). We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Triples When a batter reaches on a hit and stops at third base or only advances Yuli Gurriel has played professional baseball around the world, suiting up in Cuba and Japan before making his way to MLB. However, it pales in comparison to the 10%+ rise in strikeouts per plate appearance since 1920. ), without the adjustment period from the Cuban leagues. Must have done nightmares for the aul self-esteem. His first-pitch strike percentage was better than average for the very first time. All that progress went out the window in 2022. & thats without doing something subjective like assuming his peak was ages 21-26. His fastball sits in the low 90s but has been up to 96 mph as part of a quality four-pitch mix. Lee will be hoping to use the WBC as a chance to showcase his hitting skills against elite pitchers, as he is expected to be posted by Kiwoom after the 2023 season. He does not have a HOF case at all. Rodon trails only two pitchers who haven't yet appeared on this list in terms of WAR among all pitchers. The only way Abreus case even comes close to approaching McGriffs is if you really give him a ton of credit for what he did in Cuba, where he spent most of his ABs against non-MLB quality pitchers. Find out more. Choi ranks 17th in KBO history in hits and is second all-time in home runs. How many MLB caliber pitchers did he face or was he teeing off on A Ball level guys? This year, the Pirates will team up with the Pitt Community College and Clemson baseball programs to help fight and strikeout ALS with a goal of raising $10,000. Osmond had an up-and-down abbreviated first season in Stillwater, but he has a couple of things going for him headed into next season. Most players who are producing in their mid to late 30s tend to have HOF cases. WebWillie Stargell is number five on the all time career strikeout list, but he never broke into the top eighty (80) on the single season leaders for strikeouts; by comparison, Jose Hernandez already appears two (2) times in the top twenty and is well on his way to becoming one of the big leaders (#69 all-time already [up from #82 in 2004]). Im deeply sorry that he cracked 50% as a known fucking cheater, because his statistical case is so unambiguous from both a traditional and SABR perspective. If Wright managed to continue this trend through the end of the season it would be the first time in his career he achieved such a feat. He came back down to earth a bit subsequently, but with what we know about hitters aging curves peaking at 25-26, he mightve missed out on 2 or more comparable-or-better years. And if he actually looked like a hall of famer while in the U.S. compared to other players his same age, this would be a compelling last hurdle or feather in cap to put him over the top. Thus, if Gurriel wants to get back on the field, a minor league contract might be his best bet. The highest-ranked freshman on the BA 500 to make it to campus, Montgomery has a fastball that has been as high as 96 mph and a slider that was one of the best in the 2020 prep class. His swing currently produces a lot of line drives, which limits his ability to drive balls out of the park, though the raw power he has suggests he could sacrifice some batting average for more power with mechanical changes. The argument for trying to count these numbers is that Cuban players were prevented from playing MLB for reasons beyond their control. I assume the next thing you say will be incredibly stupid (such as pretending Cuba and Japan are the same, I mean, seriously? Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database. Using a similar methodology to my TTO article a few weeks back, I plotted the percent of qualified hitters in each season with BB% greater than their K% (white bars above). His performance on liners was actually his best in years. Just off the pace was Louisvilles Reid Detmers, who was drafted 10th overall by the Angels. Yep its really annoying that this bloody weirdo has me arguing against Freddies awesomeness. Narrator: TKDC continued whining, while offering no defense to claims like I think Javier Vazquez was better than Cole Hamels, regardless of how much data indicates that pitchers DO impact batted ball outcomes!!!!!. Alongside, Park will likely line up at first base for Team Korea, with fellow KT Wiz teammate, Across the diamond at third base will be another KBO veteran, and one of the most accomplished KBO hitters in history, in, Team Korea will also rely on a veteran behind the plate, with 14-year veteran catcher, Since we started awarding the KBO Fielding Bible Awards in 2020, the center field award has been won by either, KBO (Alumnus) Scouting Report: Aaron Brooks. As most of Pirate Nation is aware, the baseball program has been greatly affected by ALS as former head coach and ECU Hall of Fame member Keith LeClair was diagnosed with the You know who does? Overall Batting Stats; Index Team AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB SLG% BB HBP SO GDP OB% SF SH SB-ATT PO A E FLD% Texas Tech.333: 11: 375: 123: 125: 33: 6: 16: 118: 218 Game Team High Strikeouts; Strikeouts Total; Oklahoma State vs LMU (2/25/2023) 16: Another step forward could put him among the countrys top arms in terms of strikeouts. He was kinda the same player at age 24 that he was a 31, hes had a few bigger seasons, but they are distributed fairly evenly over the last decade. The result has always been a high contact rate but an equally low walk rate. - Strikeouts Leader (1933-1934 & 1937) / Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez. In the wake of those deals, fans have started to wonder which starting pitcher will own the 2023 season. HR. Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. If it is just that he got to the states just as his peak was ending, then we are talking about a likely 1st ballot kind of guy. Four of 2022s five ERA leaders (Justin Verlander, Julio Uras, Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah) among starters with a minimum 130 IP had a +39% flyball rate and a All rights reserved. Lets not forget that as a DH playing for the White Sox, he only needs to reach 38.8 WAR to get into the Hall. 1. WebIn League Top 10 Batting Pitching Yearly League Leaders & Records for Strikeouts POWERED BY Create your own custom leaderboards Become a Stathead today and run the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. Ohtani's greatest accomplishments for the Angels in 2022 came on the mound, a year after he hit 46 home runs. For the 2010-11 season: ZIPS: .306/.433/.629; Davenport: .358/.468/.754. His bat was mediocre, his power was lacking, his baserunning was poor, and his defense was lousy in other words, his toolbox was empty. And I personally dont believe large assumptions should be made in this type of case. Yet since moving stateside, Gurriel has worn just one uniform, and it still seems strange to think of him wearing any colors other than blue, orange, and white. Its possible; different careers have different arcs. His barrel rate dropped, his hard-hit rate dropped, and you guessed it his average exit velocity dropped too. Lee ranked fourth in the KBO last season with an average exit velocity of 89 MPH according to our Synthetic Statcast model (SIS replicates Statcast data for non-MLB leagues), and he also finished in the top 10 in hard-hit rate (38%) and expected BABIP (.388). For comparison, the league average was 131. Baseball vs Stony Brook February 24, 2023 2 p.m. baseball Final Feb 25 Stony Brook 11 Troy 15 Baseball vs Stony Brook February 25, 2023 3 p.m. As most of Pirate Nation is aware, the baseball program has been greatly affected by ALS as former head coach and ECU Hall of Fame member Keith LeClair was diagnosed with the The veteran Park is a much better defender, and won the KBO Fielding Bible Award at first base this past season. 0.9 percent. The fact is hes looked like a very ordinary player next to major leaguers. Gerrit Cole leads the list, with Corbin Burnes, Jacob DeGrom, and Carlos Rodon closely following the Yankees ace. Park was a notable prospect for his power, which he did show in his brief MLB look, hitting 12 home runs in 62 games. Expect him to be replaced with a defensive replacement or pinch runner in the WBC. Youre so smart, so special, so, so braveand the genuinely odd preoccupations of your ad hominem jabs DEFINITELY trick everyone here into believing youve touched a breast since you stopped nursing in the 10th grade. Along with Torra, Boone gave UC Santa Barbara quite the left-handed duo in 2020. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Abel is the wildcard on this list. Baseball Almanac is pleased to present a year-by-year leaderboard in Major League strikeouts for every season since 1876. Who will be 2021s strikeout king? Yet the problem was more localized than that. One is his pure stuff, which includes a devastating fastball-slider combination. .200-.250 OPS seems like the gap between the CNS and the MLB (Rusney Castillo is at .202, Gurriel is at .248). LAFAYETTE, LA. With a fastball that can reach the high 90s, a plus changeup and slider, and a cutter with potential, theres an argument to be made that hill has the best raw stuff in college baseball. He was starting to put things together in 2019 with 58 strikeouts in 48.1 innings when he went down with injury, and hell look to pick that up in 2021. , though he did hit .308 with a double and 4 RBI over the tournament. 12 UCLA past Sacramento State, 3-2, on Saturday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium as part of the 2023 Southern California College Baseball Classic. Because of my beliefs about non-U.S. baseball accomplishments effect on hall worthiness, I dont have to grapple with these unknowables. First, we see the drastic decline of hitters that walk more than they strikeout. The bullpen is one of the sports best, and the top four starters Max Fried, Spencer Strider, Kyle Wright and Charlie Morton are elite. SB:Belbin, Jarrod1; Halstead, Tyler1; Howard, Payton1; Harrill, Lawson1 Louisiana BATTING: 2B:Kyle DeBarge 1; Julian Brock 1 RBI:Heath Hood 1; Mason Zambo 2; Trey LaFleur 1; Luke Yuhasz 1; Lee Amedee 1 SF:Trey LaFleur 1 BASERUNNING: RUNS:Kyle DeBarge 1; Carson Roccaforte 1; Heath Hood 2; Julian Brock 1; Luke Yuhasz 1 Early returns are good, as he struck out 26 in 19.1 innings as a freshman in 2020. Black struck out 29 batters in 22 innings in 2020, but if what he did over the summer is any indication, hell pile up many more in 2021. Stony Brook 4 Troy 9 Baseball vs Stony Brook February 24, 2023 2 p.m. Someday, hell earn a plaque in the Astros Hall of Fame. I dont know how you do it, haha lol. update=copyright.getFullYear(); Stats Baseball vs Rice (Minute Maid Park) March 5, 2023 3 p.m. Tue, Mar 7 6 p.m. We need your support to make FanGraphs sustainable so you can continue to enjoy all of the stats and tools you've Others would support their assertions by pointing out that Shohei Ohtani has been seeded relatively low in the standings. To a neutral observer, Barco might appear to be third in a potential Florida rotation that would include veteran righthanders Tommy Mace and Jack Leftwich, but his stuff makes him the most likely of the three to pile up massive strikeout numbers. From #16-26 is, McGriff, McCovey, Votto, Julio Franco, Banks, Guerriel, Al Oliver, Giambi, Felipe Alou, Helton, and Konerko. In 1929, 80% of all qualified hitters had higher walk rates. For example, his 2010-11 translated to .358/.468/.754. This is conjecture without the facts to back it up. Gourson drove in the first two runs of the game for UCLA (8-2), wiping Burnett (2008) and Roger Clemens (1997 and 98), I especially enjoy that the lone downvote on the quote from Dans article mysteriously disappeared after I mentioned that it was a quote from one of Dans articles. Roster. He struck out 114 in 99.2 innings as a freshman, including 19 in a no-hitter against Duke in the super regionals. Please logout and login again. and he had a .964 OPS in his first season over. His walk rate fell in response. But in the U.S., even if you dont penalize him at all (and its not so much penalizing him as it is rewarding players who played in MLB prior to age 27), he doesnt look like a hall of famer. Maybe someday we will get a better sense of how to translate Korean or Cuban stats but we arent there yet. Abreu is 39th in post-1947 1B in fWAR between ages 27-35 behind guys like Youkilis and Adrian Gonzalez.