Another thread got me to thinking about how strikeouts by batters are viewed in my opinion differently than when I was playing youth ball in the 1960's. Now you have major leaguers commonly fanning 150, 160, 180 and now even breaking the 200 barrier. In baseball history major leaguers led the league in the 20's, 30's and even 40's with often far less than 100K's Even up to my time in the 60's it was often taught that K's were a "worse kind of out" and we all choked up to avoid them especially with two strikes.
I'm especially interested in how some of our posters such as TRit, Perfect Game and others who have been around baseball for a long time view this and if in their opinion the way we look at batter K's has changed over the last 30 years or so.
I feel this trend to just not worry about strikeouts started in the late 1960's when Reggie J ackson, Bobby Bonds and Frank Howard became the first guys who were stars who K'd over 150 times yet were still successful pwer hitters. Before that the guys who got past 150 were not great stars. Anyone else's thoughts?
Lastly, Perfect Game or TRit , how does this effect the way you look at young hitters now or scout young guys. Do we just accept many strikeouts in most power hitters and has your perception of this changed over the years?
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