A’s say they’re not worried about high strikeout rate
OA LANb >> The A’s entered play Wednesday night, having struck out 242 times. Only the Atlanta Braves (250), and Chicago Cubs (245) had struck out more often.
They see the numbers and, frankly, they aren’t overly concerned.
“You know, when things don’t go well, you’re concerned about it, and when things go well and you score some runs, you hit some homers, you’re not as much,” manager Bob Melvin said Tuesday night after the A’s struck out 13 times in a loss to the Arizona
Diamondbacks. “We do have some guys that will strike out. At some point in time, it becomes a little bit of a concern.”
That whopping strikeout count comes with the territory of being a home run-hitting team. A team that errs on the side of selling out for power is prone to more swings and misses than others. It’s a trend that runs congruently with the rest of the league opting into the power fad.
But, the A’s are concerned only if the strikeouts indicate a pattern of recklessness. Their approach in 2019 didn’t differ much, yet they ranked 24th in the league in strikeouts (1338). Their 25.2% chase rate was well below the league average (28%). Discipline became the team’s pride, a tangible measurement of their offensive success behind the lineups game-changing power strokes.
Their plate discipline goal then remains the same now: Are the A’s hitters swinging too much out of the zone?
“As coaches, our concern is if we’re swinging at the right pitches,” A’s assistant hitting
coach Eric Martins said. “Are we making pitchers throw good pitches? Are we chasing pitches out of the zone? That’s the conversation that we need to have.”
Entering play Wednesday, Matt Chapman led the A’s in strikeouts with 34. Marcus Semien, Mark Canha, Matt Olson and Ramón Laureano were next with 27 each. The high strikeout counts are particularly suspect from Semien and Canha, who pride themselves on a relatively measured approach. All five everyday players are chasing pitches down and in, out of the zone.
However, a majority of the team’s chase rates are well below the league average. Stephen Piscotty, who has a 42.6% chase rate, seems to have struggled most with laying off bad pitches. Olson is at 14.5%, Canha at 17.2%, Semien at 21.4% and Chapman at 24.9%. Khris Davis, who’s struggled at the plate, has a 29.2% chase rate. Robbie Grossman, who’s been the A’s most consistent onbase presence, has a 19.8% chase rate.
Pitchers have made impactful adjustments against Semien, an American League MVP finalist with a target on his back. Opposing teams are pitching him down in the zone, and he’s just starting to sharpen his eye for which ones to lay off.
Canha, who prides himself on his plate discipline, lamented lost privileges to the video room in between at bats — a league-wide rule born of the of the Houston Astros’ sign stealing scandal. Last year, Canha used in-game video to identify mistakes in real time. Struggling against a certain pitcher or pitch? Canha could sort it out before his next at bat. He, and others, have had to work around the new flow.
“I think when we’re going really well, we’re not striking out as much,” Piscotty said. “It’s still a pretty short sample size.
“I know we’re focused and that’s going to turn around.”
Individually, the A’s hitters are taking a while to settle in — but that’s not the issue of concern. Though the numbers tell us the A’s aren’t collectively chasing at a high clip, the strikeout issue indicates an over-emphasis on producing runs with one big swing.
The A’s have a knack for leaving runners on base; they’re averaging 3.29 runners left in scoring position. Come a postseason series, the offense won’t be afforded multiple series to swing big through a slump or to clinch a must-win game.
“The team is very aware of that,” Martins said. “They need to slow the situation down in the box and not try to do too much. We’re working on it. It’s just one of those things right now that we have to get better with.”
Getting better doesn’t mean the A’s will alter their approach, Melvin said. “Days and stretches where it’s a lot, it becomes a little bit of a concern.”
To stave off concern, they’ll need to make quicker mental adjustments in situational hitting moments.
“It’s about mentality,” Martins said. “With runners on second and third and less than two outs and understanding where the defense is playing. If they’re playing back, knowing if ‘I hit a ground ball I can get a run. We can score here.’ The last thing we need to do is strike out or pop up. We want to be able to get the line going, next guy up.”
Martins attributes the high strikeout numbers to an early-season push to get the offense flowing with the pressures of a 60-game season weighed heavy on the bats. The A’s had 154 strikeouts by the second week of the season. If the mentality softens, those numbers will regress to a mean accordingly.
“I think it’s just everybody is trying to do their job,” he said. “Sometimes when we try too much it makes it harder.”