Not that it's necessarily a horrible thing, but the Orioles have several guys who strike out frequently. Some of those guys were picked up during the offseason, and some were already on the team. Let's take a look at some career numbers. (Note: The MLB average strikeout percentage in 2010 was 20.7.)
Mark Reynolds: 38.7 K%
Derrek Lee: 23.2
Luke Scott: 22.9
Matt Wieters: 22.5
Adam Jones: 21.7
Nick Markakis: 16.3
J.J. Hardy: 15.8
Brian Roberts: 15.1
Vladimir Guerrero: 12.2
The O's also have a bunch of hitters who walk a lot:
Reynolds: 11.4 BB%
Lee: 11.2
Scott: 11.2
Roberts: 10.0
Markakis: 9.9
Wieters: 8.5
Guerrero: 8.5
Hardy: 8.1
Jones: 4.9
(The 2010 MLB average walk percentage was 8.5.) So that helps to balance things out.
Looking at those numbers, it's not hard to recognize two things: Reynolds's high strikeout rate and Jones's awful walk percentage. It's already a well-known fact that Reynolds strikes out too much, but he does walk a lot and hit for a good amount of power. Jones, though, strikes out too often and barely walks at all. In fact, he had the worst walk-to-strikeout ratio (0.19) of all MLB hitters last season, when he had a 3.5 BB% and a 20.5 K%. Not good, Mr. Jones.
So be prepared for more runs, walks, and home runs this season -- and more strike outs.
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