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What Does Tuffy Rhodes Hit When Not Striking Out

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What Does Tuffy Rhodes Hit When Not Striking Out
Tuffy Rhodes is off to another great start in 2009. I was looking at Tuffy's numbers on the NPB's new English language website, and I noticed that Tuffy sure strikes out a lot for a guy with a .286 career batting average (in Japan). Naturally, I wondered, "What does Tuffy hit when he puts the ball in play?" This led to to some other questions, including, "What do a few other great players hit when they put the put the ball in play (don't strike out) and "What do they hit when they put the ball in play but the defense has a chance to make a play (no strikeouts or home run). I decided to look at Tuffy, Alex Cabrera, Ichiro, and Hideki Matsui, probably the best four hitters to play in Japan in the last 20 years. Here is what I found (stats are NPB only):

AB Hits HRs Ks BA
Ichiro 3,619 1,278 118 359 .353
Alex 3,587 1,098 313 914 .306
Godzilla 4,572 1,390 332 934 .304
Tuffy 6,055 1,733 452 1,598 .286

Batting Average when putting the ball in play (no K's):

Alex .411 (1,098 for 2,673)
Ichiro .392 (1,278 for 3,260)
Tuffy .389 (1,733 for 4,457)
Godzilla .382 (1,390 for 3,638)

Batting Average when putting ball in play and defense has a chance to make a play (no K's or HR's)

Ichiro .369 (1,160 for 3,142)
Alex .333 ( 785 for 2,360)
Godzilla .320 (1,058 for 3,306)
Tuffy .320 (1,281 for 4,005)
What conclusions, if any, can be drawn from this small sample? For one, it's extremely unlikely that anyone is ever going to hit .400 in a NPB season. Even for great hitters it's extremely difficult to hit .400 even when you take out the strikeouts, and everyone strikes out in the modern game at least once in a while.

Also, Ichiro does appear to be especially good at "hitting 'em where they ain't," to borrow the line of Wee Willie Keeler. Anyone who's seen Ichiro play knows that, like Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Rod Carew before him, he is exceptionally good at hitting the ball into in the gaps between infield and outfield and between fielders. However, it is also not surprising to see that power hitters have high batting averages when not striking out and not hitting a home run, because they hit a lot of balls hard when they make contact.
Comments
Re: What Does Tuffy Rhodes Hit When Not Striking Out
[ Author: DaClyde1 | Posted: May 7, 2009 8:58 AM | OBs Fan ]

Speaking of Tuffy, has there been any word in the press as to why he hasn't started in the last three games? He was on fire from the start of the season, then had a couple of hitless days and hasn't started since. Pinch hitting seems pointless for him as he's more likely just to strike out than do any offensive damage in just one or two ABs.

Is he hurt? Did he annoy someone in management?
Re: What Does Tuffy Rhodes Hit When Not Striking Out
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: May 7, 2009 9:34 AM | YBS Fan ]

He ran into a wall a few days ago, bruising both knees.

I suppose you could say that he annoyed management by getting hurt, but management doesn't want to take him off the roster completely. So he's being given some rest, but is still ready to go in every day.
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