Camden Depot: Getting to Know Dexter Fowler

[weams]

http://camdendepot.blogspot.com/2016/02/what-to-know-about-dexter-fowler.html

You won't confuse Fowler for Joey Votto or Bryce Harper, but he does draw a lot of walks. His walk rate of 12.2% would have led everyone on the Orioles in 2015 not named Chris Davis (and, you know, Ryan Lavarnway in 32 plate appearances, but you don't care about him). It also wasn't a one-year fluke; Fowler has a career walk rate of over 12%, and his lowest walk rate in any season is 11.3% in 2010.

He's also a bit of a strange player, because he combines lots of strikeouts and walks with not a lot of power. He had the lowest slugging percentage among the six players who struck out at least 150 times and walked 80 times or more in 2015. The other names on the list? Paul Goldschmidt, Mike Trout, Davis, Matt Carpenter, and Curtis Granderson.

[DrungoHazewood]

He's also a bit of a strange player, because he combines lots of strikeouts and walks with not a lot of power.

So how strange is that? My thought was it was very odd and something that couldn't have happened 30+ years ago because of the increase in Ks recently.

But that's not exactly right. There have long been a few players like Fowler, but many of them just weren't very good. Or their career numbers ended up like Fowler due to the combination of good years and bad years (see: Melvin Upton). Ron Swoboda was kind of a poor man's Dexter Fowler in the 60s.

Gary Pettis was a really odd guy. He struck out more than Fowler relative to his leagues, had half as much power, but still walked 12% of the time. He was a plus-plus CFer and a very good baserunner, but in 1985 he struck out 125 times and had one homer. Pettis was one of those guys that teams kept trying to fix because they knew he could be awesome if he just choked up or bunted all the time or something. And that worked about as well as it usually does. Let's hope the O's just let Fowler swing away.

[Ruzious]

Let's face it - with a name like Fowler, he was doomed to strike out a lot. It's not like his name is Dexter Homer or Dexter Walker.

[Fuzzball22]

Wasn't Fowler the name of the pitcher that Roy Hobbs homered against in the bottom of the ninth in the playoff game? Every time I hear his name that is what i think of:)

[McLovin]

Anyone have any insight as to why he struggled to break 500 AB's until last season? Injuries? Or platooning?

[Camden_yardbird]

A very consistent hitter who gets on base.

[OsFanVB]

Someone to get on base for Jones Machado and Davis to bring home with the long ball!

[MrOrange82]

This seems premature.

[thezeroes]

Anyone have any insight as to why he struggled to break 500 AB's until last season? Injuries? Or platooning?

Look over these points.

http://m.mlb.com/player/451594/dexter-fowler

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