Paying close attention to the KNBR flap, Travis sent me the following email earlier today:

Good article on the situation...
Click here for article

For the most part, I dug the article. Then I logged onto CBS Sportsline for some numbers and replied:

Best line:

"Folks, could we possibly de-escalate the rhetoric? We'll have nothing left if genuine tragedy strikes."

Worst line:

"He might come back with an insight about how something other than lack of intelligence might account for some of those kids, when grown up, hacking at slop nightly."

Isn't he basically making the same claim Krueger did, minus the "brain-dead" part? There are currently (as of games played before August 11th) 11 free-swingers with 100 or more strikeouts. With the exception of Canadian Bay, all of these slop-hackers are Americans.

1 Adam Dunn CIN LF 122
2 Richie Sexson SEA 1B 122
3 Brad B. Wilkerson WAS CF 114
4 Pat Burrell PHI LF 112
5 Mark Bellhorn BOS 2B 109
6 Preston Wilson WAS CF 107
7 Jason Bay PIT LF 104
8 Brandon Inge DET 103
9 Troy Glaus ARI 3B 101
10 Eric Chavez OAK 3B 100
11 Jim Edmonds STL CF 100

I know it can be argued whether this stat alone is indicative of undisciplined bat-swinging. Just throwing some relevant numbers out there since many people will probably agree with the non-inflammatory parts of the guy's original point. I'm not buying it. I'll buy "baseball players hack at slop nightly."

Labels: baseball, bunkum