Written by Scores Report Contributor Mike Farley
Certain baseball players have a high windmill rate, meaning they swing and miss and help opposing pitchers pad their strikeout totals—you know, guys like Jim Thome and Carlos Delgado and Jim Edmonds. Then there’s the opposite side of that. Namely, the toughest hitters in baseball to fan. These are the guys that are fouling balls off constantly, and getting a piece of pitches they have no business hitting. Typically they are leadoff batters or number two hitters. Here is a list of active players who have the most at-bats per strikeout in their career:
1. Juan Pierre, Los Angeles Dodgers (16.8) —Pierre is a natural leadoff hitter, and Joe Torre has inserted him into that role since Rafael Furcal was hurt about a month ago. The fact that he only has 307 career walks also means that Pierre is a guy who flat-out makes contact almost every time up.
2. Placido Polanco, Detroit Tigers (14.1) —He doesn’t walk a lot and doesn’t steal many bases, but this second baseman is a good hitter (.341 in 2007) who rarely strikes out. He also has one of the best names in baseball.
3. Paul LoDuca, Washington Nationals (13.2) —When LoDuca was the catcher for my Mets the last few seasons, he had to fill some big shoes. Namely, that of Mike Piazza. I always liked the fact that LoDuca hit in the clutch and always seemed to make contact, but the Mets’ brass didn’t like him very much for whatever reason.
4. David Eckstein, Toronto Blue Jays (12.2) —Eckstein is the peskiest, scrappiest player since Pete Rose. What’s that Mr. Selig? Pete Rose never played the game? Oh yeah, I forgot.
5. Jason Kendall, Milwaukee Brewers (11.6) —I’m sorry, but every time I think of Jason Kendall I’m reminded of that play when he was with the Pirates, where he stepped on first base and his foot almost fell off. It’s right up there with Lawrence Taylor breaking Joe Theismann’s leg.
6. Orlando Cabrera, Chicago White Sox (10.6) —I saw this dude’s age and wondered how he possibly could have been in the league for twelve seasons already. And then I saw why—he played almost eight full years in Montreal.
7. Bengie Molina, San Francisco Giants (10.5) —The Molina family produces catchers the same way the Manning family produces quarterbacks.
8. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners (10.4) —I still can’t believe this dude won the AL Rookie of the Year AND MVP Award in 2001. And dude is still stealing bases at the age of 34 (25 in 60 games so far this season).
9. Nomar Garciaparra, Los Angeles Dodgers (10.3) —There are three things that Nomar brings to mind—Fenway Paaaaak, his hot soccer playing wife, and the fact that he can’t ever seem to get his batting gloves adjusted properly.
10. Cesar Izturis, St. Louis Cardinals (10.2) —For as much of a baseball fan as I am, I can’t ever recall seeing this eight year veteran bat. Tied with Izturis is Neifi Perez, who we didn’t formally list because he’s a free agent and hasn’t played yet in 2008.
Source: Baseball Reference
