In recent years, baseball MLB has turned more and more towards that variant of the “three true results”, what are the home run, the strikeout and the walk, results in which the defense is not needed and only the pitcher, catcher and the batter. Perhaps the most representative player of this way of playing ball be New York Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo.
In his career, 57.6% of Gallo’s plate appearances have ended with either a home run, strikeout or walk, making him also very prone to falling victim to a so-called shift when he makes contact with the ball, which is one of the the slugger’s biggest complaints, since as he mentioned to Jayson Stark of The Athletic, he must somehow be regulated.
I feel like at some point, you have to fix the game in some way or another. I mean, I really don’t get how I’m supposed to hit doubles or triples when I have six guys waiting for the ball in the outfield.
Gallo led all of MLB in strikeouts and walks in 2021, with 213 and 111 respectively. In the end he finished the campaign with averages of .199 / .351 / .458, with 38 homers and 77 RBIs.
