In 2005, his last minor league season Granderson had a 29% K rate. In Ryan Howard's last 2 minor league seasons he struck out at a 33% rate. He had a 31% clip throughout the minors. It needs to come down a little, but these days the MLB is littered with high K rates.
Granderson's rate was 25.6% in 2005 Ryan Howard's minor league rate was 26.9%, including 25.7% in his last season. K rate is based on PAs, not ABs.
The other guys was using the per AB rate Springers per PA rate is 27.8% this year and 26.9% last year. It's still high, not doubting that. But if he can lower it a little he will be in line with guys who have proven to have success in the bigs.
I agree with the worry bout Springer, however.... The difference between Springer's 28.9% K rate and a more acceptable 24% K rate is, at this point, 11 strikeouts. Assuming he really wanted to, I imagine he could choke up on the bat and take a really defensive swing every time he got to two strikeouts, just trying to put the ball in play. I would guess he would probably have 15 less strikeouts on the year, to get his K% where we wanted it, however at the same time, he probably would not have any two strike hits and no two strike homers. So, he would be batting maybe .280 with 12 homers instead and an acceptable K rate. I guess my question would be, what % of the strike outs is due to him being overmatched by certain pitches as opposed to just not really developing a defensive two strike approach? Would it really be better to just make a groundout with two strikes as opposed to a strikeout?
We just gotta let a player play. Springer has shown continual improvement and progression after slow starts at every level. I have no doubt after he has a rough start in the majors (which will have alarm bells going off) he'll settle into a solid player with outstanding tools and the potential for some great seasons.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Good day down on the farm. Lancaster'sPreston Tucker and Brady Rodgers named Cal League Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively...</p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/341667152488714240">June 3, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Corpus OF George Springer named Texas League Player of the Week. Springer has been one of the top players in all of the minor leagues in '13</p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/341667400980258816">June 3, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
For all of the Springer K Rate talk . . . It is not possible to just compare one prospects K rate to another and think that will point towards the type of player he will turn out to be. Striking out a lot can come in many forms Is he striking out a lot because of his mental approach? Is he striking out a lot because he can't catch up to a fastball? Is he striking out a lot because he can't hit a curve? Is he striking out a lot because he can't hit a slider? Is he striking out a lot because he is swinging for the fences too much with 2 strikes? Is he striking out too much because he is taking strike 3 trying to draw walks? There are many different reasons for striking out too much, some of them can be fixed much easier than others. Bottom line is he is hitting for average, hitting for power, stealing bases and playing a good OF. Not all prospects work out, but he certainly has the looks of a player right now
No way! Clearly he's not cut out to hit ML pitching and should be traded for multiple prospects. /sarcasm
I hope that is correct, cause that is the most easily fixed of all the choices. Not saying it is an "easy" fix, but the odds of fixing that is much better than guys who really struggle with a certain pitch.
Just means he has a higher bust potential. On the optimistic side, I'd compare him to Andruw Jones (before he got fat and started to suck).
Nolan Fontana has made his return to the Lancaster lineup. It's his first game since May 15, and despite being on the DL for 3 weeks, he still leads the California League with a .452 on-base percentage.
Springer Whether you use K per PA or AB, Springer still strikes out way too much. For me, if you use K per AB, 25% is the line. Springer is at 33.5%. If you use PA, fangraphs uses the following table: Rating K% BB% Excellent 10.0% 15.0% Great 12.5% 12.5% Above Average 15.0% 10.0% Average 18.5% 8.5% Below Average 20.0% 7.0% Poor 25.0% 5.5% Awful 27.5% 4.0% Springer is at 28.6% strikeouts per plate appearance, so it's still awful. However, he walks in 14.3% of his plate appearances, which is great.
Jarred Cosart was all over the place again. He went 4 1/3 innings and allowed 4 runs (2 inherited) on 5 hits, walked 5, and struck out 6. He threw 99 pitches tonight; 49 of them were strikes.
Nope, just a lifelong fan who happens to think Springer is a really good prospect and a guy we can hopefully build a team around. Some think he is gonna be trash, some think he will be a little below average. Only time will tell I suppose, I just hope i'm the one who is right
