Strikeout totals continue to rise in major-league baseball

Swinging or looking, it doesn't matter much to Nate Jones.

"It's sweet to see," the Chicago White Sox's hard-throwing relief pitcher said.

What we have been seeing, through the first month of the major-league season, is strikeouts. Lots of strikeouts.

They have been piling up in recent years, and the trend is continuing in 2018.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports was the latest reporter to address the epidemic, and the numbers don't look good for fans of contact hitting.

With the month of April coming to a close, baseball is on pace for 43,163 strikeouts this season.

That would easily shatter the record 40,104 strikeouts from last year, and the 38,982 from 2016. Since 2008, strikeouts in major-league baseball have risen every year.

Let's start by giving credit to the men on the mound.

Already this season, there have been more than 50 fastballs clocked at 100 mph or higher, with St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Jordan Hicks accounting for the top four top speeds (101.7-101.4).

Striking out major-league hitters on fastballs is a commonplace, but pitchers rely on other methods as well.

"It's all about getting ahead in the count, 0-2, 1-2, even 2-2," Jones said. "Once you get ahead, once you get to two strikes, those are huge counts for strikeouts.

"You can climb the ladder with your fastball or just go down in the zone with a backfoot sliders, pitches like that.

"As a pitcher, you want to get ahead. Once you get to two strikes, that's kill-zone time. Let's get after it."

Moving over to the hitting side, how much are they to blame for the high K rates? The suddenly popular launch angle and exit velocity seem to be factors.

"You have to look at the hitting revolution, the launch revolution, whatever you want to call it," White Sox hitting coach Todd Steverson said. "Hitters are trying to launch balls now and the counter to that is pitchers throwing high fastballs. Most hitters can't get to them."

Major-league pitchers are good to begin with, and they're smart.

Knowing hitters have been adjusting their swings to get under pitches and hit them hard and far, they have elevated the strike zone.

"We talk about (high fastballs) all the time," Steverson said. "It's tough, because it's a tough pitch to lay off of. It comes out of his hand and it looks tantalizing to you. Kind of eye level and straight. But it's very hard to catch up to.

"It looks really good, but at the end of the day you maybe put 1 out of 10 of those in play. And if you do put it in play, I'm not sure how much success you're going to have."

Moving to the umpires, Steverson has noticed more high strikes being called this season.

"We tell our guys to look waist down," the White Sox's hitting coach said. "Some pitches are being called strikes and they're high, so that makes it kind of tough. If a pitch is high and you lay off like you should, and it's a strike, it's obviously going to depend on who is behind the plate and how you have to adjust."

Through Saturday's play, Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada led the majors with 47 strikeouts. The White Sox ranked 11th in baseball with 240.

The Sox have plenty of hitters that like to swing hard and try to launch home runs, including Matt Davidson, Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson and Moncada.

"I think that we as an organization still try to concentrate on making sure we try to balance and fight with two strikes," manager Rick Renteria said. "We even talk about choking up. There are a lot of clubs, a lot of individuals throughout major-league baseball, that do that. They put themselves in a better position to be able to manipulate the barrel.

"Since the trend is for the home-run ball, everybody forgets you still need to play the game sometimes. And making contact is part of the game, and line drives will also help just as well as homers. We're trying to have a balanced approach. Are we there yet? Probably not, but we're working toward that end."

Special K

Major-league leaders in strikeouts, through April 28:

1. Yoan Moncada, WHITE SOX, 47

2. Yoenis Cespedes, Mets, 43

3. Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees, 39

3. Carlos Gomez, Rays, 39

4. Matt Olson, A's, 38

5. Trevor Story, Rockies, 37