Speaking at a breakfast yesterday in Dayton, Ohio, Mike Schmidt said that Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell and Cincinnati Reds slugger Adam Dunn "tick me off because they strike out so much."But didn't Schmidt whiff 1,883 times during his 18-year, Hall of Fame career with the Phillies?
"Now I know that if I had choked up on the bat with two strikes and hadn't been so aggressive and gave in to the pitcher, I wouldn't have struck out so much," Schmidt said. "And that's what guys like Dunn and Burrell have to realize.
"When I played, pitchers wanted me up there with the game on the line. They'd rather face me than a guy behind me like Greg Luzinski, who would put the ball in play.
"I look at Dunn and Burrell and I go, 'My God, if these guys cut their strikeouts down to 75 or 80, they put the ball in play 85 or 90 more times a year.' That's at least 15 more home runs a year and at least 35 more RBIs a year.
"I mean, why would Dunn and Burrell watch what [Albert] Pujols does and not want to be like him, as good as he is? When their careers are over, they are going to wonder how much they left on the table, how much they left on the field. If only they had choked up with two strikes, spread their stances out. What they are doing now is not great, it is mediocrity."
Should be a fun day in Clearwater when Schmitty makes his annual spring-training visit to Phillies camp.
1 comment:
Yeah no doubt strange to hear that from Schmidt. But that is one of the reasons why he never got a caoching shot. The guy is not all that bright.
But he is blunt and correct. Burrell ran as many deep counts as anyone in baseball last year. You would think he could have put the ball in play more. When I see Burrell go down on strikes after fouling off two or three pitches with two strikes I have to wonder what is going through his head.
Clearly he gets fooled on the off speed stuff and gets pitched inside then out.
Which is why I wish Burrell could adjust to a opposite field hitter. Howard is a text book all field power hitter. Burrell has power in the right field gaps but he is a big time pull power hitter. It would be nice to see him hit to all fields.
As far as Dunn who cares he is not a Phillie.
But I think Schmidt may have been simply trying in a way to voice his frustration with two guys that have great potential.
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