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Reply to "What would the numbers look like if there were no Ks?"

Dominik85 posted:

Depends on whether you can cut your Ks without using a B swing.

For example in mlb 30 years ago Ks were much lower but babip also was lower so players probably were taking more emergency swings with two strikes to make contact.

Generally in pro ball there isn't a big correlation between K rate and production because power hitters tend to whiff more.

At lower levels K rate is very predictive though. Minor league prospects with high K rates bust more often than low K guys. 

That is probably why at the mlb level Ks are not negative for hitters on average: only the elite power hitters with high Ks make it to the show while better contact hitters can make the show with less power.

I don't even think that Ks and power are related, there are very low K power hitters. Contact and power are just independent skills and being elite in both is more rare.

And since the low power high K guys get weeded out you find more power hitters among them.

So yes generally lowering Ks is extremely productive but only if it doesn't decrease your contact quality and power.

That’s why I didn’t try to get too tricky when I extrapolated those numbers.

 Year/RPG/BABIP

2017/4.66/.299

2007/4.80/.303

1997/4.77/.301

1987/4.72/.289

 Looking at those numbers, if what you say is true, BABIP didn’t mean as much.

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