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Arizona Diamondbacks third basemen and clean-up hitter, Mark Reynolds struck out a lot in 2007. In fact, he struck out 129 times while hitting .279 with 17 home runs in 366 at-bats. His strikeout rate was an abysmal 35.2% and his BB:K ratio was also poor at 0.29 (37:129).

Reynolds came into Spring Training working towards lowering his strikeout total. However, that experiment has come to an end as he’s accepted his strikeouts saying, “it’s just me”.

Part of spring training is experimenting, and third baseman Mark Reynolds’ experiment at trying to work counts and lower his strikeout total has come to an end.

“I realized that’s not me,” he said. “I’m swinging at the first strike I see. Hanging curveball, hanging slider, fastball, whatever. That’s what got me here, so I don’t think I need to change it.

“I just realized, ‘Why am I trying to change something that got me to the major leagues?’ Strikeouts are going to be there. I’ve accepted it. I don’t care what anybody writes about it or anybody says. It’s just me.”

For those of you in fantasy leagues that count hitters strikeouts against you, listen up. If Reynolds registers 550 at-bats in 2008 (which he should if he stays healthy and remains in the clean-up slot) and doesn’t improve on his strikeout rate, he’ll whiff 194 times this season. That places him near Howardian levels, without the 47 bombs that Ryan Howard hits.

On the flip side of that coin, if strikeouts don’t count against you Reynolds might have some value to your team. Even with his poor strikeout rate he still hit .279/.349/.495 last season. And with the extra at-bats, his home run totals reach towards 25 instead of the 17 he hit in 2007.

So, once again… stay away if your league negatively counts strikeouts. If not, look to Reynolds as a secondary 1B or CI hitter.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 8:32 am and is filed under Third Basemen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.