All or nothing

By Todd Wills

July 01, 2009 08:45 pm

— What to do about Chris Davis?
Listen to the Rangers’ nightly post-game radio show, and the topic is sure to come up.
It’s been the subject of sports talk segments. Water cooler talk. On blogs. In the home-run porch at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
A guy I sat next to for hundreds of Rangers games, Stephen Hawkins of the Associated Press, wrote an entire story about Davis’ chase to set the major league record for strikeouts.
Davis had 110 strikeouts through 73 games entering Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. That puts him on pace for more than 240. Arizona’s Mark Reynolds set the major league record last year with 204 Ks.
For some of us, Davis is taking us back to our youth, to the days of Dave Kingman, who hit 442 home runs but also had a career batting average of .236 in 16 big league seasons. Kingman averaged 152 punchouts for a 162-game season.
Or Rob Deer, who had 230 home runs and a .220 career batting average in 11 seasons. He had 198 strikeouts per 162 games and once had 186 in a season.
The strikeout has always been a “scarlet letter” in baseball, but Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson are in the Hall of Fame and they show up in the Top 50 strikeout seasons. So do Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn. Sammy Sosa, Bobby Bonds and Bo Jackson, too.
The Rangers’ greatest strikeout threat, Pete Incaviglia, fanned 185 in 1986, his rookie year. Inky was 22 at the time. He managed to get paid 12 big league seasons.
Time will tell if Davis is a Jim Thome, who has been a respected hitter despite all the whiffs, or a Jim “Hound Dog” Presley, who had three 20-plus homer seasons in the 1980s for Seattle, but also had six straight 100-plus strikeout seasons and was eventually cast off.
Davis’ future will undeniably be decided with how he responds in his first full season in the big leagues. And how the Rangers respond.
Davis had a four-hit game in Arizona last week, including a game-winning home run in the 12th inning. It was an excellent piece of hitting by Davis, who foul tipped a dipping change-up and then on the next pitch ripped a two-run homer. He had hits in his next two games.
Since then, Davis was 0-for-11 with three strikeouts going into Wednesday. He had fanned in six straight games. The focus again has turned to the whiffs.
Davis’ past suggests he’ll cut down on his strikeouts. He had 150 Ks in 129 minor-league games in Single A and Double A in 2007. Playing in Double A and Triple A before getting called up to the big leagues last year, he had less strikeouts than games — 73 in 77 games.
I had Jamey Newberg, author of the “Newberg Report,” on my weekly Wednesday lunchtime sports talk show on KAND. Newberg, whose e-mail newsletter and website are popular among diehard Ranger fans, suggested that if the Rangers are still near the top of the AL West in two or three weeks and Davis is struggling, they might have to consider an alternative at first base.
It would likely have to come through a trade. Davis’ future challenge will come from former first-round draft pick Justin Smoak, but he was out for a month before returning from an injury last week. Smoak has a hit in six of his seven games since returning and he’s batting .331 for Double-A Frisco.
But Smoak is 22 years old and who’s to say he won’t struggle like Davis if and when he makes the huge leap to the big leagues. The smart money would be on Smoak fighting some growing pains at the plate and in the field. You sure can’t afford that in a pennant race.
Navarro coach Whoa Dill, who knows Davis as well as anybody, said he spoke with the former Bulldog two days ago.
“His sprits are better than I thought they would be,” Dill said. “My whole deal is he’s done it before, look at his minor league stats.
“He’s 23 years old. He’s still learning. To send him back down to the minors is pointless.
“He’s just pressing. People dogging him in the papers, on the radio. He’s trying to do too much.”
Dill did suggest platooning Davis, maybe having him sit while right-handed hitter Andruw Jones plays first base against lefties. The splits do suggest Davis’ psyche would benefit from the move. He is batting .225 with 12 home runs and 26 RBIs against righties, compared to .149 with three homers and five RBIs against lefties (do note that Davis has 99 more at-bats left-handed).
The Rangers have gotten away with leaving Davis in the big leagues because his defense is exceptional. It is commendable that he has not taken his strikeouts to the field. You can bet every scout who watches Davis play is noting that.
But let’s face it, first base in the American League is a power position. Always has been, always will be.
“Defensively he’s unbelievable,” Dill said. “He’s saved a lot of runs. But a first baseman has to produce in the big leagues.”
Davis does have 31 RBIs, two more than three-hole hitter Michael Young. But you don’t hear callers or talk show hosts blistering Young for having a dismal season as a run-producer. Young has built up too much good will with the media members that drive baseball talk in Dallas/Fort Worth.
“Chris will be the first scapegoat,” Dill said. “His whole issue is strikeouts. I’m worried that if they get eight or nine games behind the Angels you’re going to see them sending him back down.”
Going into Wednesday’s game, the Rangers were a game and a half behind the Angels. They face a tough stretch with the red hot Rays coming to Arlington this weekend and a road trip next week to Anaheim and Seattle.
Davis appears to be safe for now. As we get deeper into the month, that could change, if the Rangers are a contender and Davis’ batting average is still hovering around .200 — it was .202 going into Wednesday.
Dill noted that Davis struck out 66 times his first year at Navarro. That dropped to 29 his sophomore year.
The track record on Davis, going back to his move from the University of Texas to Navarro, is he’ll survive this.
Dill offered Davis some help during their conversation.
“I told him to let me throw him batting practice,” Dill said. “I’ll get him out of it. Bring him back to his roots.”

The K Club
Arizona’s Mark Reynolds set a major league record with 204 strikeouts last year, but ex-Navarro star Chris Davis is already threatening to shatter that mark. With 110 strikeouts in 73 games, he is on pace for more than 240. Th Top 10 All-Time strikeout seasons are:
Player Total Year
1. Mark Reynolds 204 2008
2. Ryan Howard 199 2007
Ryan Howard 199 2008
4. Jack Cust 197 2008
5. Adam Dunn 195 2004
6. Adam Dunn 194 2006
7. Bobby Bonds 189 1970
8. Jose Hernandez 188 2002
9. Bobby Bonds 187 1969
Preston Wilson 187 2000

Source: Baseball-Reference.com

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