Strikeouts

[nixxy311]

Is it better to have a lot of really good hits and more strikeouts or less actual hits and less strikeouts.

DD is pretty good at not striking out. I've been collecting stats on her since 2016 and in 558 plate appearances she's only struck out 38 times (been walked 105). Not sure of % of called vs swinging. The only times we ever got on her was on called strikeouts because we've told her to at least try to foul it off if it's close and stop trying to be the ump. Her BA is around .411 (only 40 xbh though) and is usually at the top of RBIs because she's just good at putting the ball in play..

However I've noticed that the girls that get the best hits all tend to strikeout a lot. In her spring season of TB, she struck out 2 times and had the second highest BA. The girl with the highest BA also had one of the highest # of strikeouts. It's just confusing to me if it's a good or bad thing. She's always struggled a lot with hitting well and I always wonder if it's because she's too cautious when she's batting. It seems like the girls that can get the triples or HRs just swing a lot harder and want to swing a lot so that leads to strikeouts..

Thoughts?

 

[Hawk_]

Depends on the role of the player. Lead off hitters I want on base, 4 hole hitters I want the bases cleared.

 

[KPower]

I don't really have an answer for you. DD is a contact hitter who finds the gaps. She has never put one over the fence. She rarely strikes out and has a very high OBP. Most of her teammates try to swing for the fences and seem to pop up or strike out and get out a lot. It is frustrating when we just need base hits, but they want to be the hero and hit a home run and wind up with an out instead.

I personally would take 4 singles over 1 HR and 3 strike outs/pop outs any day. You have one run either way - but 3 fewer outs.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Depends of the girl and type of hitter. If she's getting hits and not striking out thats good. But if she's getting a lot of weak ground balls to pitcher or 2nd base because she's "just making contact" then that's probably a problem. Not everyone can be a big power hitter. It sounds like your daughter is a good contact hitter but not a big power hitter.

I mean would you rather have had Rod Carew or Willie Stargell? Both are in the baseball hall of fame and played around the same time but one was mostly a singles hitter who didn't strike out a lot while the other was home run hitter who had about twice as many Ks as Carew.

 

[nixxy311]

I guess my worry is she seems to not put her full power into a swing just so she is def going to make contact - so it leads to some dinky hits. She's ends up on base a lot with errors too so her obp is pretty high as well. It stinks because she's got a great swing in practice and I know she can hit the ball further than she does - when she's not afraid. I just worry that if she has a fear of striking out - that tends to make her pull back some.

It depends on which team she plays on on where she is in the lineup. Rec tended to put her close to the top - which kind of sucks for her rbis. Her tb team varied a lot.

 

[_MIA_]

Has her swing changed since you posted it in the Spring of 2018........?

To answer your question the best hitters hit for power,average and don't strikeout a lot...strive for that
by making sure her mechanics are as good as they can be.

 

[nixxy311]

Her swing does seem better - but she tends to roll her hands and that leads to her grounders. When she does things right - she can hit really good line drives which her hitting instructor wants from her. She doesn't quite have the muscles yet to hit hr's though she keeps talking about doing push-ups. She's doing ROTC this year so she'll get some extra PT in at least

Not a great view but one of her hits from last week -

 

[Sweet Lou]

Talk to her about approach maybe. With less than 2 strikes she should be looking to drive the ball hard. With 2 strikes you can change to more of a make contact approach.

 

[Eric F]

I guess my worry is she seems to not put her full power into a swing just so she is def going to make contact - so it leads to some dinky hits. She's ends up on base a lot with errors too so her obp is pretty high as well

Keep working on developing power. As she moves up in age and competition level, the number of times she gets on base due to errors will drop off dramatically.

 

[Eric F]

Talk to her about approach maybe. With less than 2 strikes she should be looking to drive the ball hard. With 2 strikes you can change to more of a make contact approach.

My kid likes hitting 2-strike dingers.