Friday, April 02, 2004
A New, Improved, Jimmy Rollins?
An intriguing piece caught my eye today: Jimmy Rollins has been working out with Tony Gwynn this off season to become more of a reliable lead-off hitter. This is an tantalizing prospect. The problem with Rollins has been his ridiculously high number of strike-outs. E.g.: over 100 K’s three straight years. A lead-off guy has to draw a lot of walks to supplement the usual quota of singles: Rollins has just 158 walks to 331 strike-outs in his career. His career .317 OBP is too low for a true lead-off man, which is why he lost the job to Marlon Byrd.
Gwynn’s career is almost the anti-Rollins: 790 walks to 434 strike-outs. Read that again. Gwynn's BB-K ratio is almost the exact inverse of Rollins career numbers. Check out 1994: when Gwynn flirted with hitting .400 (his OBP was .454) he struck out just 19 times in 110 games! Gwynn had a phenomenal eye. If Gwynn can teach Rollins something about being selective in his pitches, and teach him to banish the thought that he’s Ricky Henderson (a power threat in the lead-off slot), Rollins could do some big, big damage in ’04. Maybe get his job back too.
Gwynn’s career is almost the anti-Rollins: 790 walks to 434 strike-outs. Read that again. Gwynn's BB-K ratio is almost the exact inverse of Rollins career numbers. Check out 1994: when Gwynn flirted with hitting .400 (his OBP was .454) he struck out just 19 times in 110 games! Gwynn had a phenomenal eye. If Gwynn can teach Rollins something about being selective in his pitches, and teach him to banish the thought that he’s Ricky Henderson (a power threat in the lead-off slot), Rollins could do some big, big damage in ’04. Maybe get his job back too.
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