Or would it?
No. It would not. A quick look at the career leaderboards for seasonal strikeouts say that he would still fall behind Hall of Famer Charles Puckett’s 259—a tally he created at age 44 while drawing a paycheck with the Greenville organization (currently Jacksonville). That sorry case aside, though, Humangrouthormone’s performance in 2041 would be a record.
Except, of course, he’s not the projected K leader for 2041.
It’s an interesting thing, the strike out. Teams and fans have long argued about the value of the K vs. the cost of it. Pitchers, of course, love them because it’s the one way to make sure nothing bad happens. But fans of the big hit love them, too—or at least they don’t see them as a problem, which is weird in a way. Fans and baseball folks value the strike out when they are in the field, but also value them when they are hitting. It really doesn’t make sense, but we are, after all, human. Sense is what we say it is when we point to it, or something like that.
Anyway, it may be of interest that the BBA has seen, as of 2041, a total of 61 seasons of 200 or more strike outs. Of those 61, seven (over 10%) of those seasons have happened in the past two years. To give you an idea of how the game has changed, in the pre-modern era of 1973-1994, a twenty-one season span, only three such seasons were created.
(trivia question: who was the first BBA player to record a 200+ strikeout season? – Answer is at the end)
Taking this a bit wider, when we look at BBA history in 5-season bands, we can see an even more interesting factoid in that the past decade has see a stratospheric rise in the number of 200K seasons, with 28—nearly 50% of all—coming since 2030
Here’s the breakdown:
| Years | 200K Seasons |
|---|---|
| 1985-1989 | 2 |
| 1990-1994 | 1 |
| 1995-1999 | 5 |
| 2000-2004 | 5 |
| 2005-2009 | 3 |
| 2010-2014 | 3 |
| 2015-2019 | 1 |
| 2020-2024 | 5 |
| 2025-2029 | 8 |
| 2030-2034 | 15 |
| 2035-2040 | 13 |
| Grand Total | 61 |
Perhaps it’s of interest to note that, including 2040, the past six seasons have seen a small drop-of from the previous five (from 15 to 13 such seasons). Of course, the fact must also be stated that, including Weaver and Humangrouthormone, there are a total of eight players who project to join this list in 2041.
This, of course, will not happen. Big strikeout seasons are being endured more often than ever before, but still the league has never seen more than five such events in a single season, and that was back in 2032 when Dong-soo Chon, Sam Adams, Robert Gowron, Gabriel Talamante, and Juan Rodriguez all registered between 202 and 209 whiffs.
Patience only goes so far.
GMs will only allow so much.
That’s the theory, at least.
Will, for example, Mexico City allow Joey Newhouse to see 600 plate appearances if he keeps posting that -.5 WAR he’s done so far? Same kind of question for CCJ’s William Drew, though Drew did post 3.7 WAR last year, so the leash is longer for him. Talamante seems to have free reign in Wichita again, so he’s a probable 200+er, but the came can’t really be said for Montreal’s Jim Antolin or Vegas’s Mike England. What Portland is going to do with Hedde Veenman is anyone’s guess, but we’d say 200+ Ks will not be spent on him.
So, yeah, I don’t think we’ll see 8 guys whiff 200 or more times.
What do I know, though. That’s why they play the games, right?
(trivia answer: Rock Thundercrotch, with 204 in 1985 ... that's Mr. Thundercrotch to you ... )
