Early-season strikeouts and Adam Dunn

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The glaring number from Friday's home opener victory against Max Scherzer and the Tigers is 15: the number of strikeouts by White Sox batters. The total pushed their season total to a bloated 57.

In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter, since they're 4-2. They're also forcing opposingteams to throw an average of 150.2 pitches per game, which is important. But just for fun, let's look at this list:

Most strikeouts (by batters) in first six games of season, White Sox history 1918-present:

YearTotalMain culprit
201257Adam Dunn (10)
199654Danny Tartbull (8)
198746Ron Karkovice (8)
200943Jim Thome (7)
199742Chris SnopekRay Durham (7)

Baseball-Reference.com's fantastic database only goes back to 1918, and judging from trends, I'm pretty comfortable in saying that the 57 is most likely the Sox franchise record through six games: from 1918 to 1933, they have averaged only 17.2 strikeouts in the season's first six games.

The strikeouts may seem alarming because over the last two seasons, the whiff totals had been fairly low. In 2011, the Sox had the second fewest in the AL; they along with the Rangers were the only teams with less than 1000. And in 2010, the Sox had the second fewest as well, with only the Royals going down swinging less often.

Dunn of course tends to get singled out again, getting his golden sombrero refitted for the 2012 season, but I'll write Friday off to facing Scherzer, possessor of one of baseball's most potent sliders. Dunn battled in every plate appearance, almost always working the count full before his strikeouts, and overall his vision at the plate looks considerably better this season.

Numerically, Dunn is seeing 5.42 pitches per plate appearance, easily the best in the AL. That's 141 pitches seen over 26 plate appearances. Perhaps I dwell on this number a bit much, but it sets off a chain reaction of good things. First, it forces the starter out early. Next it wears out a bullpen over the course of a series. When you're seeing the 11th and 12th best arms in an opponent's bullpen, that's a thing of importance, so do your thing, Canyonero.

Dunn strikeouts by count:

Count201120120-22701-24912-2
55
13-2468
Dunn strikeouts by number of pitches:

Pitches seen
2011 Ks
2012 Ks
325044105481634572218
4
2
931

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