re: Josh Hamilton agrees to terms with Angels 5 yrs/125 Mill

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His K rate has basically been the same every year besides this past season.

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Exactly. So, as I said, if its a one year thing, no biggee. If this is a trend, then it's very bad. He nearly doubled his K rate in a season That's almost unheard of (unless the hitter started with a really low K rate).

Batting average tends to fluctuate for a hitter for a lot of reasons, so year, that 359 is an aberration, too. But a 300 BA becomes nearly unattainable if you're striking out in a third of your at bats. Do the math.

Let's say you strike out 150 times in 450 at bats (using for ease of math, but also, it's better to guess the under for Hamilton's at bats). That's 1/3 of your at bats just gone. So now to hit .300, you need 135 hits and you only have 300 at bats to do it in. That means Hamilton has to hit .450 in at bats he doesn't strike out in, which is really, really high. Home runs help, but after that, you need to be pretty hit lucky. He struck out in 29% of his at bats last year, which is about as high of a K rate as you can have and still have a shot at 300. Once you're above 30%, it becomes a war against math.