Swing, Batter

Launch angle, my pinkie.  After the White Sox struck out 16 times in Minnesota Sunday, I was almost too mad for words.  Thank God for the Cubs.  A day later, they struck out 17 times against Astros’ pitching.  Javy Baez struck out five times, for the second time in his career.

 

After the game, Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon told the Tribune (which actually sends a reporter to follow the team on the road), “One beautiful thing about Javy is I don’t think he’s going to lose any sleep over that.  He’s going to conduct himself in the same manner as if he got five hits.”  This is gibber elevated to a new level.  If I were Maddon, I wouldn’t want Baez going sleepless in Houston, but I would want him to learn from his mistakes.  And looking at the career of a former Cub would be a great way to start.

 

In a kind of coincidence that indicates the presence of a supreme being (and one fond of irony), the Cubs were flailing away in Texas on the same day Bill Buckner died.  Forget the fielding gaffe in the 1986 World Series, Buckner is a player worth studying.  I’d go so far as to say his 22-year career points back to the future of baseball, or should.

 

Yes, the 2715 hits are an impressive total, but so are the strikeouts, all 453 of them from 1969-1990; in comparison, Baez already has struck out 610 times in five-plus years.  Buckner never struck out more than 40 times in a season.  In 1982, he hit .306 with fifteen homeruns and 105 RBIs and just 26 strikeouts.  In other words, in 709 plate appearances that season, Buckner struck out 3.7 percent of the time.  Baez has twice struck out five (worry-free) times in a game.  Buckner never struck out three times in any of the 2517 games he played.

The analytics crowd probably wouldn’t like his career .321 OBP, reflecting the low number of walks, 450.  Tell you what.  The MLB draft is next week, with the White Sox picking third.  If I could take Bill Buckner II, I would.  And, just for fun, I’d watch to see where Javy Baez’s career is ten years from now.