Mark Reynolds Fails To Join Club

Mark Reynolds really let me down this year. When he was sent to the Orioles before the 2011 season, I had grandiose dreams of a 400 strikeout performance against the power pitching of the American League East. At 196 K's, he still led the AL in striking out but, for once, that wasn't the source of my obsession. If you follow me on Twitter, you already know where I'm going with this.

Thanks to Reynolds playing third base like a fawn wondering onto the interstate for the first time, he had a pretty good chance to hit 30+ home runs and produce no value. By no value, I mean a 0.0 Wins Above Replacement (WAR). Using Baseball-References version of WAR, only eight (8!) players have ever hit 30+ homers with an rWAR equal to or less than goose egg...

Rk		Yrs	From	To	Age
1	Dave Kingman	2	1982	1986	33-37	Ind. Seasons
2	Mike Jacobs	1	2008	2008	27-27	Ind. Seasons
3	Tony Batista	1	2004	2004	30-30	Ind. Seasons
4	Dante Bichette	1	1999	1999	35-35	Ind. Seasons
5	Joe Carter	1	1996	1996	36-36	Ind. Seasons
6	Cecil Fielder	1	1995	1995	31-31	Ind. Seasons
7	Cory Snyder	1	1987	1987	24-24	Ind. Seasons
8	Tony Armas	1	1983	1983	29-29	Ind. Seasons

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/29/2011.

In 1999, Dante Bichette was secretly replaced in the outfield with a can of Folgers coffee and nobody could tell the difference.

In 620 plate appearances, Reynolds hit 37 home runs and a .221/.323/.483 line. It's a pretty accurate picture of the player he has been over his five year career. But in 2011, his defense was off the charts poor and that gave him a chance to become the ninth player to join the club.

The Orioles, afraid of my Twitter campaign, moved Reynolds to first base. So, much to my chagrin, he finished the season with a 0.5 rWAR. He flirted with the zero mark several times down the stretch but, alas, it was not to be.

We were so close, people. So close.

Ozzie Guillen Won't Protect Adam Dunn

White Sox manager/crazy person Ozzie Guillen doesn't need or use stats to fill out a lineup card and, for that, Juan Pierre thanks him. Guillen also doesn't care if a player might break the single season strikeout mark as long as that player isn't hurting the team. So Guillen won't sit Adam Dunn and his .160/.290/.302 line. Wait, what?

"I will sit him down if he's not helping the ballclub, but not because of a mark," Guillen said Sunday. "Not at all, no. (If) we need him to take a break and give somebody a chance, I will do it.

snip

"(But) I just worry about putting the best guys out there every time," Guillen said.

"Every time Dunn or (Alex) Rios is there, I feel like they have a chance. But it's not what I feel. It's how they feel."

Dunn has crossed the Godfather III threshold into the "made a donation in your name present" territory on the chart of disappointment this season. Dunn is having the worst year of his career and it's not even close. His strikeout rate is the highest of his career at 36.4% and his .274 wOBA is 79 points worse than his previous low. Even removing most of his atrocious defense by DHing and playing a little fist base, Dunn is still putting up a -1.6 WAR which, by definition, means he's worse than a replacement level player.

But, Ozzie keeps running him out there and hoping for the best. So far this season, the "best" is 1-4 with three strikeouts. The strikeouts are piling up (122 in 335 plate appearances) but he is still a long way from Mark Reynolds magical 223 strikeout record season of 2009. Fangraphs ZiPS is projecting 81 strikeouts for the rest of the season leaving Dunn with a mere 203. Of course, those projections don't have Dunn accumulating over 600 plate appearances so maybe they were nervous about Guillen pulling the plug on Dunn's terribleness. Silly projections.

What The Hell, Mark Reynolds?

I've always had a soft spot for Mark Reynolds because he swings and misses with great vengeance and furious anger. But something strange has happened during Reynolds' move from the NL West to the AL East. He's cutting back on the whiffs. Thirty-five games in to the 2011 season and Reynolds has a mere two three-strikeout games and nary a Golden Sombrero. And I'm starting to panic.

While Reynolds has cut his strikeout rate from 42.3% in 2010 to 32.2% this season, the rest of his stats are just as terrible as usual and he's stopped hitting for power. His .174/.287/.313 is the worst of his career as is his .139 ISO. Even his .221 BABIP is a career low, so hopefully he's been a little unlucky this year. But almost half way through May and only 37 strikeouts to his name, Reynolds looks doubtful to reach the 200 K plateau that he's hit each of the past three seasons. I mean last year he even had more strikeouts (211) than batting average points (.198).

Of course, Reynolds could still achieve that feat again because he might hit .160 this season. Without the thrill of the big home runs and strikeouts, Reynolds is just a below replacement level third baseman and a player even the Orioles shouldn't be penciling into the line-up. So please, Mark, for the sake of everyone, start closing your eyes and taking monstrous hacks again. We miss you.

Off Base NL West Preview

Offbase editors Derwood Morris and MTD haven't had much luck previewing things lately-MTD incorrectly predicted Gary Discarcina would come out of retirement to help the Angels win the 2009 World Series and Derwood thought Teen Wolf 3 would be the 2010 summer blockbuster. But here are division previews anyway.

In this post, I look at the NL West. The West is of course home to the defending strikeout kings of baseball, the Arizona Diamondbacks. And some team that won some series.

San Fransisco (2010: 92-70)
The Giants just barely got past the Padres to make the playoffs. Once they got into the postseason, Cody Ross homered them to the World Series Championship. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Brian Wilson also contributed. The Giants return just about everybody except they swapped out a couple of old short stops. They'll get a full season from blog favorite and 2010 NL ROY Buster Posey. Perhaps the Giants learned their lesson by almost missing the playoffs and won't mess around this season with top prospect Brandon Belt's service time. Pablo Sandoval reportedly lost 300 pounds after cutting entire deep fried pigs out of his diet and looks to rebound from a poor 2010 season. And hopefully, we'll get more of this...



Obviously, I mean Brian Wilson and not George Lopez who I'm trying to get deported for crimes against comedy.

Colorado (83-79)
The Rox rewarded their young stars by locking up Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez to monster contracts. CarGo displayed some uncanny home/road splits in 2010 to the tune of .380/.425/.737 and .289/.322/.453 but those home stats still count. Tulo is a fantastic player by all accounts but hasn't displayed a knack for staying healthy. But I'm not on the hook for any of that cash so the next few years look like pretty good deals. PECOTA thinks Ubaldo Jiminez comes back down to his 2009 stats but a tad worse and I'm inclined to believe that based on my scientific whimsy.

Los Angeles (80-82)
I think the Dodgers have a better rotation than the Rockies but they did let Russell Martin walk just when it looked like he was poised to give Jeff Mathis some competition for most incompetent LA catcher at the plate. So Mathis can go ahead and get that 2011 acceptance speech ready. Matt Kemp should have a better season unless having dated Rihanna turns out to be some kind of career killer. Which is why I have rejected her many advances. You know, for the sake of the blog.

San Diego (90-72)
I hear the weather is nice. And a zoo, right? So, that's cool.

Arizona (65-97)
The Diamondbacks struck out an impressive 1,529 times last year. The Marlins were the next closest with 1,375. The D-Backs shipped off Mark Reynolds who struck out over 200 times for the past three season in an effort to make me stop watching them altogether. Good job, Arizona. You just became less interesting.

Brady Anderson Teaching Mark Reynolds To Not Strikeout

Well, well. It looks like former Orioles star outfielder Brady Anderson has found a nice secondary career as a trainer/hitting instructor in Southern California. Working out in the sun all day sounds like a nightmare to me but I'm Irish and the most extensive lifting I do is moving a laptop around. I do some solid reps with six ounce adult beverages but that's just for tone not bulk.

Anyway, Anderson recently had a little Q&A with The Arizona Republic's Nick Piecoro and he spoke specifically about one of my favorite players...

Q: What have you been working on with Reynolds?

A: He gets himself in a situation where he's late, he waits until the last second and swings as hard as he can. That's a mechanical flaw - not him being stubborn. When you're late and you don't have proper rhythm and timing, you chase high fastballs with two strikes, you check swing and strike out on sliders in the dirt. ... It doesn't really matter that he strikes out. Sure, you'd like to eliminate them. You don't have to take them from 200 down to 100. Ideally with him, the difference in a tiny little incremental improvement, if he went from 215 (strikeouts) to 185 ... then the whole season changes.

I love Mark Reynolds but this is scary news for me. I spend way too much time during the season watching Reynolds' box scores awaiting just one more strikeout to crown him with another Golden Sombrero. He even won our first annual Golden Sombrero of the Year Award but, for some reason, still has not contacted me for his Off Base t-shirt prize.

Now, Reynolds is taking his Ks to Baltimore and has turned to Anderson for help. This is very disconcerting for me as I was fully expecting a 437 strikeout season against the power arms in the AL East. I'm no scout but in the 30 seconds that I took to skim this interview, it sounds like Anderson knows what he's talking about. Rhythm, timing and not striking out all sound like keys to not striking out.

I'm sure I've thrown around some perfectly unfounded opinions on Anderson's silly (steroidy?) 50 home run season but he only struck out over 100 times in just five seasons and his watermark was 111. Anderson was a 18.3% strikeout rate guy compared to Reynolds' fantastic (for me) 38.7% rate.

I'm not happy about this and will be monitoring the situation closely.

Mark Reynolds Moves Golden Sombreros To Baltimore

Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers dealt his free swinging third baseman to Baltimore for a pair of relievers to kick of the Winter Meetings. Mark Reynolds, still just 27-years-old, will provide some pop from the corner infield position as he's hit 32 and 44 home runs over the past two seasons. Unfortunately, the one thing he does better, much better, than hit home runs is striking out. Reynolds has struck out over 200 times in each of the last three seasons and is a good bet to continue that streak considering the quantity of quality power pitchers in the AL East. He could be looking at record shattering strikeout numbers in the near future. Of course, Reynolds already owns the records he'd be shattering but still...

Reynolds signed a fresh three-year, $14.5 million deal at the beginning of last season. But new GM Towers, seemed to be non too pleased with Reynolds' .198/.320/.433 line and 211 strikeouts. So Towers shipped Reynolds off to Baltimore for relievers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio.

I have a special connection with Mark Reynolds because I document the great moments in plate futility here at Off Base. Reynolds won our first ever Golden Sombrero of the Year Award thanks to his four Golden Sombreros in 2010. He's a strikeout machine and a pure joy to cover. I'm looking forward to big swings and misses next year. The good news for Orioles fans is that I'll be covering your team more closely in 2011 and almost every post about Mark Reynolds will be accompanied by this picture of a drunk donkey wearing a sombrero.

Golden Sombrero Of The Year Award

It's just about award season and we've created some of our own. I poured through box scores for much of the season (we were born on 5/30/2010) to bring you some of the finest swinging and missing baseball had to offer. And boy, were there a ton of Golden Sombreros. You can see the list I compiled here. I seemed to lose a little steam writing them up there at the end, mainly because I ran out of pinata blooper videos.

I mentioned Mark Reynolds and Ryan Howard in the intro to every Sombrero post I wrote because, well, they're my poster children for strikeouts. And they didn't disappoint. It was a close race but there can be only one Highlander. After I collected all of the ballots (I was the only one that had one) and crunched some numbers (took a nap), I have the winner. Ladies and gentleman, your 2010 Golden Sombrero of the Year Award goes to Mark Reynolds. *thunderous ovation of missed claps* Here's the official ballot in case you were afraid of any shenanigans.

1. Mark Reynolds
Reynolds led all of baseball in strikeouts for the third straight year. He's also gone over 200 strikeouts in each of the last three seasons. And he set a personal best, striking out 42.3% of the time. He notched four Golden Sombreros and had the decency to wait for me to start this blog before he struck out four times in one game. And for that, I'm bringing back the drunk donkey.

After I finish this post, the donkey and I are splitting a box of wine and going cruising for ladies. Look out women of Baton Rouge, you're on notice.

Congratulations, Mark. Email me your address and shirt size and I'll get your prize in the mail.

2. Ryan Howard
Howard missed some time so he only finished 11th in all of baseball with 157 strikeouts. He did still manage two Golden Sombreos to go along with his August 24th Platinum Sombrero. While Reynolds is the king, my money is on Howard to give me that damn elusive Titanium Sombrero. It might happen if the Phils meet the Rangers in the World Series and Cliff Lee pitches 14 innings. A boy can dream, can't he? By boy, I mean grown man sitting in a basement with way too much Cheeto dust on him.

Sorry Ryan, there is no free t-shirt for second place or a donkey in a sombrero. You'll have to settle with a goat.

Thanks Holy Taco, I'll be stealing from you all next season.

3. Pedro Alvarez
Another rookie beats out Jason Heyward on one of my ballots. Heyward and Alvarez both finished with three Sombreros and, although one of Heyward's was a Platinum, I wasn't writing here when Jason picked up his first GS on April 9th. Therefore, it doesn't count. Plus Alvarez racked up the four strikeout games at a more rapid pace when he finally got the call. All right Pedro, you deserve something. Hey look, a cat in a sombrero!

That should just about wrap up our coverage of Golden Sombreros for the year. Better luck next year to you crazy free swingers but as long as Mark Reynolds is still getting plate appearances, well, you're just playing for second.

Ryan Howard's Golden Sombrero, Again

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Any time you give Ryan Howard extra innings, you give me the opportunity to hand out a Golden Sombrero. While Howard is having a disappointing season, for me, at the dish with only 123 strikeouts (good for 10th), he did miss some time on the DL and should be able to rebound to finish in the top 5 in strikeouts in the NL. But if Howard gets and extra inning or two, he's almost a lock for the big Mexican hat. And that's exactly what the Padres gave him yesterday, resulting in a 1-5, 4 strikeout appearance. At the end of the season, we'll crown our first Off Base Golden Sombrero champion and I have faith that Howard will be in the mix with Mark Reynolds and Jason Heyward. Reynolds is the leader in the clubhouse with 4 and has the uncanny ability to put 2 up a week down the stretch. He wants it more.

Let's take a peek at Howard's at bats yesterday to see where everything went wrong...

Top 1st: Howard struck out looking against Mat Latos. Latos appears to be a stud in the making but Howard didn't even take the bat off of his shoulder for the 3 pitches.

Top 3rd: Howard struck out looking against Latos again. He watched one ball just for good measure.

Top 6th: Howard struck out swinging against Latos.

Top 12th: Howard struck out looking against somebody named Ernesto Frieri.

Mark Reynolds' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

My old friend Mark Reynolds somehow managed to go over a month (6/26) without striking out 4 times in one game. He has managed to skyrocket his batting average from .209 to .217 since then though. This is Reynolds' 4th Sombrero since this birth of this blog and actually only the 4th of the season. Thanks for saving them all for me Mark. Reynolds went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts so it's time to celebrate.

Any time Reynolds gets a Sombrero, I have a little tradition around here. I bring out my donkey wearing a sombrero and we get drunk on cheap tequila. Then we either fist fight in the backyard or go try to pick up some broads. He's quite the ladies donkey.

But before we get to that, let's take a look at Mark's trips to the plate...

Top 2nd: Reynolds struck out swinging against Hisanori Takahashi. He took 2 balls before swinging at the next 3 pitches because that's how Mark Reynolds rolls.

Top 4th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Hisanori Takahashi. He took 2 balls before swinging at the next 3 pitches because that's how Mark Reynolds rolls. That was not a typo.

Top 6th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Takahashi. This is what I have dubbed the MTD Hat Trick. That's when a player strikes out 3 times, the same way, against the same pitcher. It seems to be less rare than I had originally assumed.

Top 7th: Reynolds struck out looking against Bobby Parnell. Looking, eh? I guess there's nothing wrong with diversifying.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was that he didn't get another plate appearance.

Mark Reynolds' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

What can I say about Mark Reynolds? He might be my favorite player. I've tried to reach out on Twitter and Facebook but even if he's there, I'm not sure he would want to be friends with a guy who chronicles his epic moment in striking out. But there is a chance I'm wrong. Reynolds didn't have a Golden Sombrero until June 17th, about two weeks after we started this blog. This is his third Sombrero in two weeks since then. So I'd prefer to think he was just waiting until I got this blog up and running before he went strikeout crazy. I do have a pretty high opinion of myself though.

And any time I get to hand out a Golden Sombrero to Mark Reynolds means the Drunk Donkey gets out of my shed and we go patrolling for babes. By shed, I mean the spare bedroom, he likes pillows and a mattress.

Alright, we've been taking shots of Costco Tequila, so it's time to take a look at Reynolds' strikeouts before the donkey throws up on my couch...

Top 2nd: Reynolds struck out swinging against David Price. That's former No. 1 pick David Price.

Top 5th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Price again.

Top 7th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Price for the MTD Hat Trick. I hope you guys know what that is by now, jerks. I held off on the Price is Right/Wrong jokes but this at least calls for the losing horn...



Top 9th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Rafael Soriano. Did I get a fantasy save? Somebody check my lineup.

Mark Reynolds' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Mark Reynolds is my boy. He had a nice fantasy breakout season last year while hitting 44 home runs and swiping 24 bases. He also led the league in strikeouts with 223. He picked up a solid 5 Golden Sombreros last year. He picked up his first Golden Sombrero this season on June 13th. And he didn't waste much time picking up his second. Reynolds went 0-4 tonight with 4 strikeouts. You know what that means? It's time for me to get drunk with my donkey.

I named him Hurradura and we split a gallon of daiquiris tonight. He wants to go to a strip club so let's get to Reynolds' strikeout fest...

Top 2nd: Reynolds struck out looking against John Lackey. Looking? That doesn't sound right. Maybe he was distracted by a vuvuzela.

Top 4th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Lackey. Okay, that's better.

Top 5th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Lackey again. I get that tingle up my spine and ask him for some love.



Top 7th: Reynolds struck looking against Dustin Richardson.

That's just some good looking out. Thanks, Mark. If you could send me some cash, I could get moving on the OffBP Golden Sombreros. Made out of straw. Alright donkey, let's go to the strip club, you're driving.

Mark Reynolds' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

This is an exciting, special edition of my Golden Sombrero segment. In case you missed it, I reference Mark Reynolds in the description of this post. Mark has missed a few balls the past couple of years. He led the National League in strikeouts in 2008 (204) and 2009 (impressive 223). He's kind of my hero. Tonight was Mark's first Golden Sombrero since we opened this site around a week ago. Shocking, I know.

In honor of this special, frequent occasion, I took four shots of Tres Generationes tequila and hired this donkey wearing a sombrero.

The donkey and I finished the bottle of tequila and are going to pick up some broads after I finish this post. So let's get to it.

Bottom 3rd: Reynolds struck out swinging against Chris Carpenter. Nothing to see here, move along.

Bottom 5th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Carpenter. He swung and missed at three straight. I try to purchase a Mark Reynolds Fathead of him striking out.

Bottom 7th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Dennys Reyes. Mmmm, Dennys.

Bottom 9th: Reynolds struck out swinging against Kyle McClellan. Reynolds was trying to air condition the Diamondbacks stadium all by himself. Who's looking out for ya?

Thank you, Mark Reynolds. I erected a Mark Reynolds statue out of mash potatoes but my drunk donkey ate it. Speaking of which, we're going to find some ladies. I'll post something tomorrow after I post bail.