Trivia - OK, Babe Ruth Struck Out a Lot, but....

Note: '86 was Barry Bonds' FIRST full season and '71 was Willie Mays' LAST full season...

Exactly. But you know what I think is ironic?

Sammy Sosa is 6th all time in home runs (right after Junior), and he's 2nd (career wise) in strikeouts, led the league in strikeouts 3 times (1997-1999... two out of those three seasons were when he hit 60+ home runs), and was in the top 10 in his league in strikeouts for 12 out of his 18 seasons in the Big Leagues.

Mark McGwire, Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, and A-Rod are all in the same boat, and were/are/gonna be in the top 10 in home runs.

So, I can see the point that many people try to make when it comes to home runs and strikeouts. However, they don't look at the whole picture. They don't look at guys like Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks, Carl Yastrzemski, and Mel Ott...

What about them?

BTW - Bonds was TENTH in the NL in '86 (just barely making this list) and Mays was 5th in '71...

Mark McGwire was only in the top ten TWICE!!! ('98 and '99)

I gotta learn to stop assuming. All I remember about Mark McGwire (in terms of strikeouts) was that in 1998, he struck out 155 times. I don't know how I remembered that. So, I just assumed he struck out a lot in his career. And Bonds? Yeah, I'm not surprised he made it to the top ten in strikeouts only once, and that once being his first full season. He's a smart hitter with great hand-eye coordination and knows how to put the ball in play. The thing about Bonds is that if it's an outside pitch, he'll take it to the opposite field. You don't see that a lot in power hitters who strike out a lot.

No, the assumption usually goes like this - "Guys who strikeout a lot are power hitters".

But as we see above, that's not neccessarily true. Guys who strikeout a lot simply aren't great hitters - power or not.

Frank Robinson - he of 586 HR - had 100 K's in a season ONCE - and it was exactly 100.

Killebrew cut his K's down after age 28 - look at his 1969 MVP season compared to his earlier seasons.

Mickey Mantle had more walks than strikeouts in his career. As did Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Frank Thomas, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline and Hank Aaron.

Look at Ralph Kiner's power numbers sometime. Albert Belle only had two seasons with 100+ K's.

The year Maris hit 61 HR he had 67 K's.

The two seasons in which Lou Gehrig had 49 HR he had 46 and 31 (!!!) K's...

One of the biggest dudes to put on a uni - Frank Howard's career season in Home Runs (48) was alos his career low in K's -the ONLY full season he had under 100 K's (coincidence?).

Ernie Banks had ONE season with 100+ K's - his last full season.

Billy Williams career high in K's was 84. He had one other season with more than 72 K's.

All four seasons Eddie Mathews had 40+ HR, he had less than 100 K's.

Willie McCovey's best HR season (45 in 1969) was also his lowest K total of any full season (66).

Ted Williams FOUR times had more HR than K's.

Eddie Murray ONCE had more than 100 K's - his first season (104).

In TWELVE of Stan Musial's seasons he had less than ten more K's than HR (HR + 10 > K's)!!!

Dave Winfield who averaged 600 AB per full season for his career never had more than 109 K's and never placed in the top ten in his league in K's. He was top ten in HR seven times.

Mike Piazza - the all-time HR hitting catcher had over 90 K's in a season ONCE.

Don't try to tell me that power and strikeouts are exclusive.