In trying to justify the shellacking taken to Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay the past two days, I've come to the following conclusion: The Braves are only slightly better than the Astros. Hear me out...
The all time single season mark for batting strikeouts by a team is 1,529 by the 2010 Diamondbacks. They had Mark Reynolds (211 Ks)... And finished 65-97 and dead last in the NL West. They recorded 4,343 outs in 2010 meaning 35.2% of their outs were strikeouts.
The Astros opened the season on the road in a three game series in which they struck out a total of 43 times. They batted in each of their 9 innings of play for a total of 81 outs made. Therefore, 43/81 or 53% of their outs were made via punch out. They are largely considered one of the worst teams in baseball and are projected to lose 100 games this year.
The Braves opened their season at home with two wins in which they struck out a total of 24 times. They have not batted in the 9th inning of either game, meaning they have only created 48 outs this season. 50% of their outs so far are via K and neither starter they have faced has made it more than 5 innings. Tonight they face one of only 13 pitchers in baseball to record 200 strikeouts last season.
Are the Braves winning in spite of themselves? Maybe. Will they race the Astros to the worst K numbers in baseball history? Probably. Am I scraping the bottom of the barrel here to find something to smile about in the NL East even though it's a ridiculously small sample size? Definitely.
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