MLB’s New King of the Whiff: Mark Reynolds

We were so caught up in the madness that went down in Oregon last night that we missed this bit of awesomeness from yesterday: Arizona’s Mark Reynolds became the first player in MLB history to strike out 200 times in a season. He passed Ryan Howard’s record of 199 K’s, and currently has 201. But don’t let that fool you; according to the Arizona Republic, he’s still a productive hitter, as they explain in this horribly constructed sentence:↵↵⇥On the one hand, third baseman Mark Reynolds was able to establish a major league record for strikeouts in a season because, despite the strikeouts, he still was a productive hitter, a slugger with 28 home runs and 96 RBIs.↵↵Ahem, 28 homers and 96 RBI does not equal a productive hitter. (And what is this, Sega’s RBI Baseball circa 1993? 28 home runs makes a guy a “slugger” again? Oh, steroids, how we miss thee.) If you look at some of his other numbers -- you know, the ones that really matter -- he’s kind of a liability in the line-up. His AVG was .240 with a .320 OBP and .463 SLG. He’s not looking like much a “slugger” anymore, yes?↵↵Although Reynolds is capable of being productive when he actually makes contact. As Joe Posnanski points out, his .385 AVG ranks 13th in all of baseball when putting the ball in play. So, the moral here would be, uh, stop missing so much, brah.↵

↵↵Oh, and it’s also worth throwing salt in the wound by mentioning that Reynolds leads the league in another do not want category: errors. Of which, he’s committed 33, 10 more than the next most mistake-prone fielder. ↵

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