Florida Marlins and wiffs

by craig on Feb 5, 2009 11:19 AM EST in News and Rumors

There is a desire for the Marlins to cut down on strikeouts.

Along with setting a franchise record with 208 home runs last year, the Marlins also established a club high for striking out -- 1,371. Swinging and missing so often made the Marlins' offense appear to be "all or nothing."

The 208 home runs were the third-most in the Major Leagues, but the 1,371 strikeouts paced all of baseball.

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"We don't like the strikeout," Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said. "We think it is a finite event. Nothing good can happen. [The at-bat] is over with. If you put the ball in play, the sun comes out, the guy makes an error, good stuff can happen."

While that is true, but there is also a bad thing that can happen when you put the ball in play with less than two outs and a runner on first -- it is known as the great rally killer, the double play.

The Marlins, last season, hit into the second fewest double plays in the NL, while also finishing third in the number of sacrifice fly balls hit.

In other words, when push came to shove, the 'all or nothing' Marlins did move the runners over or score them from third with some efficacy.

I'm not advocating striking out, but there are sometimes when there are worse things you can do than striking out.

I could go into this in more depth, but time doesn't permit.

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Comments

sigh.

Isn’t it rather antiquated in this day and age of Bill James and Moneyball for the Marlins to still have this “one or the other” mentality? They seem to view their team as a collection of Adam Dunns, hitting towering homers and striking out the rest of the time. (Other than Jacobs, who basically WAS Adam Dunn, Jr.)

I’m sure someone could run some sophisticated statistical analysis that shows scoring a run through a bunt, stolen base and sac fly is just as good as a solo homer.

Now, there were certainly large stretches when the team simply lost the ability to move runners over—most notably the mid-to-late September stretch that knocked them out of the playoffs. But I sure hope management’s plan is more than just “get rid of the sluggers.” I’d like to see a team of Bonifacios try and close a 5-run deficit in the mid innings.