FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Experiment Over

Well, Pick has been sent back to Nebraska and the sabermetric experiment is over. While the sample size is really too small to say anything definitely (just 27 at bats), I’m told by sources in Kansas City that Calvin Pickering looked truly awful in those plate appearances while striking out 14 times. Although he certainly didn’t produce a Pickering apologist like myself is obligated to point out that he was not put in the lineup on a regular basis against right handers and was distracted by his wife giving birth in the last week or so. Interestingly, the Royals did not call up Ken Harvey but opted instead for Mike Diaz who was hitting .364 for Omaha with four homeruns. Well, at least the Royals still have Emil Brown...

That said, Pick's prodigious strikeout rate called to mind those who walk back to the bench bat in hand most frequently. For over 1,000 at bats coming into this season the non-pitcher leaders are:


Russ Branyan 41.0%
Dave Nicholson 40.4%
Melvin Nieves 39.3%
Rob Deer 36.3%
Bo Jackson 35.1%
Mark Bellhorn 33.5%
Adam Dunn 32.7%
Ruben Rivera 32.1%
Sam Horn 31.0%
Craig Wilson 30.6%

Of course, this list takes into account at bats only and not walks. If walks were considered Branyan , Bellhorn, and Dunn would all fair better since they have more plate discipline.

No comments: