Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Michael Bourn and his 140 Strikeouts

So after reading this morning about how Michael Bourn wants to cut down on his strikeouts, I got to wondering about those strikeouts. He said:

"I would love to cut down on my strikeouts. I like being aggressive; when I am too passive that's when I strike out more."

Is that true? Let's look at each and every one of Bourn's strikeouts.

Games in which Bourn struck out twice: 31
Games in which Bourn struck out three times: 2
Games in which Bourn struck out four times: 1

Vs. LHP: 35 (22.9%)
VS. RHP: 105 (20%)

Home: 71 (21.4%)
Away: 69 (19.9%)

In Astros Wins: 57 (17.7%)
In Astros Losses: 83 (23.3%)

Leading Off Game: 21 (17.2%)
Leading Off Inning: 43 (15.8%)

After First-Pitch Strike: 94 (27.6%)
After First-Pitch Ball: 46 (16.9%)

Bases Empty: 95 (20.6%)
RBI Situations: 45 (20.8%)
w/RISP: 24 (19.4%)

1st-3rd innings: 51 (20.2%)
4th-6th innings: 39 (20.1%)
7th-9th innings: 47 (24.2%)

vs. SP: 93 (19.5%)
vs. RP: 47 (27.0%)

Strikeouts Swinging: 103 (73.6%)
Strikeouts Looking: 37 (26.4%)

The most telling of all this to me is the last one: 103 strikeouts that were of the swinging variety, 37 of which were looking. So this would indicate to me that, at the very least, Bourn thinks of a "passive at-bat" in a different way than I do, in that three-quarters of his strikeouts were swinging.

I think Bourn is aggressive enough, and if he's trying to be more aggressive, well...we'll just have to see what exactly that means.