Orioles set strikeout record

[Natty]

 After striking out 14 times in their home-opening loss to the Red Sox, the O's punched out at least 13 times for the fifth consecutive game, becoming the first team in MLB history to do that. Baltimore's batters have been struck out 73 times during the streak.

 

[Natty]

https://www.mlb.com/news/baltimore-orioles-stat-of-the-day-april-2021

[Natty]

Story is incorrect about the orioles losing opening day. I'm pretty sure we won that game. LOL

[Moose Milligan]

This isn't a record, this is trivia.

A record is something that people actually care about like...most career home runs, lowest ERA in a season, most stolen bases in a season, consecutive games played, etc.

No one ever cared about what team has struck out 13+ times for consecutive games.  Sure, I guess it's a "record" of sorts but it's an arbitrary record with arbitrary parameters.  

Now if you want to have a conversation about bat-to-ball skills and OBP skills that are lacking in this lineup, that's a better conversation to have.

[Redskins Rick]

30 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

This isn't a record, this is trivia.

A record is something that people actually care about like...most career home runs, lowest ERA in a season, most stolen bases in a season, consecutive games played, etc.

No one ever cared about what team has struck out 13+ times for consecutive games.  Sure, I guess it's a "record" of sorts but it's an arbitrary record with arbitrary parameters.  

Now if you want to have a conversation about bat-to-ball skills and OBP skills that are lacking in this lineup, that's a better conversation to have.

Nice post.

My one additional thought.

Pretty Ironic that the Orioles had all those KOs, and Davis's bat was not in the lineup.

 

[DrungoHazewood]

51 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

This isn't a record, this is trivia.

A record is something that people actually care about like...most career home runs, lowest ERA in a season, most stolen bases in a season, consecutive games played, etc.

No one ever cared about what team has struck out 13+ times for consecutive games.  Sure, I guess it's a "record" of sorts but it's an arbitrary record with arbitrary parameters.  

Now if you want to have a conversation about bat-to-ball skills and OBP skills that are lacking in this lineup, that's a better conversation to have.

It's also a record that gets set almost casually since strikeouts are at or near all time highs, and for most of baseball history were half of the current rate or less.  It's like quoting obscure home run records in 1928, a few years after the era where you could lead the league in homers with 12.

In the first week or so of the 2021 season there have been 36 games with 13 or more strikeouts.  In the entire 1940 season there was one.  In the entire decade of the 1950s there were 106.

[OFFNY]

37 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

 

It's also a record that gets set almost casually since strikeouts are at or near all time highs, and for most of baseball history were half of the current rate or less. It's like quoting obscure home run records in 1928, a few years after the era where you could lead the league in homers with 12.

In the first week or so of the 2021 season, there have been 36 games with 13 or more strikeouts. In the entire 1940 season there was one. In the entire decade of the 1950's there were 106.

 

o

 

Very good point. It is similar to comparing 2 quarterback's statistics from 2 different eras ...... for example, comparing Bart Starr's career statistics to Kirk Cousin's career statistics. Strictly looking at the statistics, one might presume that Cousins must have been much better than Starr. And of course, that is not necessarily true.

 

o

[Moshagge3]

In one game of this streak, the Orioles were shut out. In another game of this streak, they scored 11 runs and collected 17 hits. I guess that goes to show that high strikeout totals in a game don't tell you that much about how well the offense actually did.

If you want a (mildly) concerning trend in a small sample size, the Orioles haven't scored a run in four games that didn't come via a HR or from having a runner on second to start the inning.

[webbrick2010]

It's not a good thing

It is especially bad considering the general lack of power in the lineup

Seems gone are the days that slap hitters could at least put the ball in play

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

53 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

Nice post.

My one additional thought.

Pretty Ironic that the Orioles had all those KOs, and Davis's bat was not in the lineup.

 

The players were leaning on Davis as a crutch and letting him rack up all those K's. Now with Davis on the injured list the players have reached their true potential at striking out. This would be more tolerable if the lineup was generating home runs and had a better OBP. 

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, webbrick2010 said:

Seems gone are the days that slap hitters could at least put the ball in play

This shouldn't be in any way surprising, this is a trend that's been going on for a very long time and accelerating across the sport over the last decade-plus.

If you extrapolate 2021 numbers so far, the average MLB batter strikes out 151 times per 600 PAs.  Prior to 1963 no one had ever struck out that many times in a season.

[Tony-OH]

2 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

This shouldn't be in any way surprising, this is a trend that's been going on for a very long time and accelerating across the sport over the last decade-plus.

If you extrapolate 2021 numbers so far, the average MLB batter strikes out 151 times per 600 PAs.  Prior to 1963 no one had ever struck out that many times in a season.

Wow. I didn't realize it had gone up that much.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Wow. I didn't realize it had gone up that much.

I think beginning/end of season K rates are little higher so this will probably go down a little.  But so far the first week+ is sitting at 9.6 K/9, easily the highest ever.  And right at 25% of plate appearances.

Edit: and I thought maybe it had to do with NL pitchers batting.  But no, it's up about one K/game in both leagues compared to last year.

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

If you extrapolate 2021 numbers so far, the average MLB batter strikes out 151 times per 600 PAs. 

Yes, but if you extrapolate the Orioles’ numbers so far, the average Oriole strikes out 206 times per 600 PA.   That’s like having an entire lineup of Chris Davises.

Having a lot of strikeouts isn’t always the end of the world, but it’s a pretty worrisome trend for a team that’s averaging 3 runs a game and has a team OPS of .589 so far.   

[DrungoHazewood]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Yes, but if you extrapolate the Orioles’ numbers so far, the average Oriole strikes out 206 times per 600 PA.   That’s like having an entire lineup of Chris Davises.

Having a lot of strikeouts isn’t always the end of the world, but it’s a pretty worrisome trend for a team that’s averaging 3 runs a game and has a team OPS of .589 so far.   

I think we've passed the point where strikeouts don't really matter because they're correlated positively with power.  Almost everyone strikes out a ton compared to the past, and there are advantages to putting the ball in play (notably you can't really hit much over .300 if you strike out 150 times).  So now a very large percentage of players have the Alfonso Soriano, Dave Kingman, Sam Horn batting skill set.  And no matter how many secondary skills you have (i.e. everything but average) there's kind of cap on how many runs you can create when you hit .220.

An average MLB hitter has to hit well north of .350 on balls in play to hit .300.  At 9.6 K/9 hitting .350 or higher overall is essentially impossible.

More than ever I'm in favor of an alternate major league with a deadened ball, minimum bat sizes, and a 63' 7" pitching distance.  And really long fence distances if at all possible.