Hitting a homerun will always boil down to the simplicity of "see the ball, hit the ball." The little nuances leading to and following the attempted execution of the event are always changing and evolving, if only in the minutest of ways sometimes. The five things that stand out about the 2015 MLB home run hitters will differ from the previous season, even if it is the same five players because the game is always slowly shifting.
Now, the 5 things that stand out most about MLB's 2015 top home run hitters.
Strikeouts - Conventional wisdom goes something like this: "Swing bat hard, hope you hit ball, maybe it go far." Baseball being the game of failure, an all or nothing approach, once called "The Kingman Klonker" (since renamed "The Dunn Donkey"), lends itself to more failure. Every so often, say 30 to 40 times a season, the klonker turns into "The Kingman Klout" and the donkey turns into the "Dunn Did." A little perspective - Since 2010, strikeouts per game have crossed the 7+ threshold and have not looked back. The 7.68 per game right now is the second highest total behind last year's 7.70. To coincide with that, walks have slipped below three a game both of the last 2 years, the only time since 1970 they've been under three.
Strikeouts Part 2 - Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis sit tied atop the home run leaderboard with 42. Cruz has struck out 143 times, Davis 193. A cool comparison is to think about is former Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, who led baseball in dingers three years -- '31, '34, '36. In that time frame, he hit 144 home runs and struck out 133 times. Babe Ruth led baseball in home runs 12 times and never struck out 100 times. In comparison, since 2000, only Albert Pujols, Adrian Beltre, Barry Bonds have done it.
Strikeouts and Joe DiMaggio - How great was Joe DiMaggio? Well, let's put it in simple terms. As of now, Davis and Cruz have struck out 336 times this year. For his career, DiMaggio struck out 369 times. DiMaggio's 1941 season pro season stands in stark contrast to today. That year, Joltin' Joe battled .357, with 30 home runs and 125 RBIs. Oh, and he nearly had as many triples (11) as he struck out (13).
Hank Aaron's Legacy - Eight of the top 20 all time home run leaders are African American (Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey, Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Willie McCovey and Frank Thomas. It has been a long running concern about the dwindling number of African-American baseball players. Adam Jones and Justin Upton are the only players in the top fifty who are African-American and under the age of 30,, being 29 and 28 respectively.
Bring Back Steroids? - Strikeouts are up but walks are down to under 3.00 a game (2.88) for the first time in over 45 years. With players becoming intelligent about the intricacy of the baseball pitch, recognition doesn't seem to be one of the acquired traits. Maybe, that was the real benefit of steroids, eyesight to the blind.
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