Will Atlanta Braves Set MLB All-Time Strikeout Record in 2022?
By Seth Carter
Atlanta Braves Third-Worst Strikeout Offender – Travis Demeritte
In what began as a feel-good story in the early part of the season, longtime Braves minor-leaguer turned Tigers major-leaguer turned Braves minor-leaguer, Travis Demeritte was sent down to make room for Michael Harris.
He made his first appearance in the 15th game of the season. Between April 22-May14, Demeritte hit .327 with a .914 OPS. Meanwhile, he struck out in 29% of his plate appearances. That may sound high, but in 92 career major-league games, Travis Demeritte has posted a 34.6% strikeout percentage. That’s 109 SOs in just 315 PAs. Ouch.
While the initial hot streak was fun, it’s not much of a surprise that it fell apart.
Atlanta Braves Second-Worst Strikeout Offender – Ronald Acuna Jr.
Ronald Acuna Jr. gets a free pass. Of Braves players with 85+ plate appearances, Acuna leads the way in strikeout percentage with an unfortunate 34.1%.
Now, Acuna’s career K% is just over 26%. He’s coming off of a catastrophic injury and despite the strikeouts, he’s still producing at the plate. You have to think that K% will come down as the season progresses. Keep in mind, that 85 plate appearances is still a very small sample size. This one is a non-issue. I really just wanted a reason to post a picture of Acuna on this page.
Atlanta Braves Worst Strikeout Offender – Guillermo Heredia
I’m not going to say much about this. Guillermo Heredia is not known for his bat. In fact, if anyone knows him for his bat they know how ineffective it is.
Over seven major-league seasons, Heredia has a .656 OPS. His career batting average is .231.
The reality is, that he sticks around for his glove.
But holy crap his bat is bad this year. The man known for playing with toy swords in the dugout now looks like he is using a plastic sword to try and hit the baseball this year.
I caught it, you're out.
— Baseball Movie Quotes (@BaseballMovieQ) September 20, 2017
But I tipped it, it hit the bat.
You're still out.
You're still fat.#Benchwarmers #YoureNotASword pic.twitter.com/FLxcT17cDs
The interesting part about Heredia is his career strikeout percentage is only 19.8%. This season, he has struck out in 48.8% of his PAs. Granted, he only has 43 PAs.
But come on man! The dude has 21 strikeouts in 43 trips to the batter’s box.
Judging by his career numbers, I’d venture to guess he improves on his current mark. If he doesn’t, he won’t see the plate much more.