The Kingman-Deer All Stars: MLB players who are home run or bust
Let's have a little fun in the final week of the season, shall we?
By
Matt Snyder
•
4 min read
We're nearing the final days of the 2016 regular season in Major League Baseball, so let's have a little fun. I'm here to start a new tradition. We're going to sort through the most all-or-nothing players at the plate in the league and we're going the name the team after famed (notorious?) sluggers Dave Kingman and Rob Deer.
So this is making fun of the players, right?
Of course not. Hitting the ball out of the ballpark is the maximum output a player can achieve in any given plate appearance. It automatically puts a run (or more) on the board without having to dink and dunk and manufacture. It's a skill. One of the best skills. Only having that one skill is perfectly fine (Adam Dunn once told me, "dude, I have one skill" and owned it).
Dave Kingman actually hit 442 career home runs, a huge total considering he played from 1971-86. He twice led the league in homers and was definitely a feared power hitter. He also only hit .236 with a .302 on-base percentage in his carer. He also led the league in strikeouts three times and was among the league leaders pretty much every season. He was a three-time All-Star, though, again illustrating that this list isn't intended as a mockery.
Rob Deer was less productive than Kingman for sure, but he was similar in his skill set. From 1986-93, he hit at least 21 home runs every season with an average of 27 and a high of 33. He also led the majors in strikeouts four times and hit a collective .222. He's worthy of inclusion here.
What got me thinking about doing this exercise was the line from Adam Duvall on the season.
Entering Wednesday, the Reds outfielder is hitting .240/.295/.501 with 33 homers and 156 strikeouts. That's very Kingmanian or Deerian, no? Here's what jumped out. He's getting on base at a clip below .300 while slugging over .500. That has previously only happened three times in history among qualified hitters: Mike Jacobs in 2008, Tony Armas in 1984 and -- wait for it!!!! -- Dave Kingman in 1976.
We obviously can't hold everyone to that standard, otherwise the entire Kingman Team would be Duvall. So instead we're just going to hop around the positions and grab the player with the greatest Kingman-Deer qualities. We'll need a low average and/or low OBP with lots of home runs and a high strikeout total.
Fasten those seat belts. We're about to feels lots of wind from the swings-and-misses or the colossal shots to the bleachers.
Gattis has always been of this ilk. A career .249 hitter with a high strikeout rate, he hits some serious bombs. This year he has 127 strikeouts and 31 home runs in 438 at-bats with a .247 average. Basically, we're starting things off with a perfect candidate.
The NL leader in strikeouts (200) is hitting .221 with 39 homers. Las tyear he hit .199 with 24 homers and the year before he hit .227 with 37. This list was made for Mr. Carter and his lumber.
Thanks to a huge second-half power surge, Gyorko has 27 home runs. The 91 strikeouts in 385 at-bats aren't off the charts, but he's not exactly Tony Gwynn up there. Speaking of which, he's hitting .239 with a .302 OBP. At least he isn't clogging up the bases.
He fits so perfectly. A .209 average, 170 strikeouts and 23 homers. Beautiful, especially coming from a position where traditionally we might have had to stretch to find a guy.
Once a decent average and on-base guy, Frazier has fallen apart in that aspect of his game since last season's All-Star break. He hasn't forgotten how to crush the ball, though. He sits with a career high 39 home runs at present, which goes with a .228 average and 156 punch outs. The drop in doubles from last year to this year is so far 43 to 21, so he's moving in the general direction of HR or bust.
We already covered Duvall above.
With Davis, he's the first A's player since 2000 to hit 40 homers in a season. That comes along with a .246 average and 160 strikeouts. His career numbers and age (28) indicate he's likely to be a regular on this list.
Moss' line: .226/.299/.484 with 27 homers and 137 strikeouts in 399 at-bats.
There were a lot of outfield options here (Mark Trumbo, Matt Kemp, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Justin Upton and a litany of others), but the three above felt like the best choices. It's a subjective list anyway.
He's only been DH twice, but Davis was in a dead heat at first with Carter and I needed both on the team. Davis is hitting .218 while leading the majors with 213 strikeouts. He also has 38 homers. He's even gone from last season's 31 doubles down to 20, so, like Frazier, he's become much more of a one-trick pony.
Bumgarner's three home runs earlier in the season got him great run, nationally, but it also helped make him incredibly overrated at the plate. He's hitting .171 with 42 strikeouts in 82 at-bats. His OPS+ is 60. That's not a DH. That's not even a light-hitting middle infielder. If we start treating him as a pitcher with a bat again, we can properly appreciate his great power -- for a pitcher.
Just for fun, here's my lineup:
1. Jedd Gyorko, 2B
2. Adam Duvall, CF
3. Todd Frazier, 3B
4. Khris Davis, RF
5. Chris Davis, DH
6. Chris Carter, 1B
7. Evan Gattis, C
8. Brandon Moss, LF
9. Danny Espinosa, SS
We definitely wouldn't be boring. There would be some double-digit run games and many double-digit strikeout games. If they ran into Max Scherzer on the right night, we'd be liable to see a 27-strikeout perfect game.
See you during the last week next season with our second annual installment!
