Cooling Off The Crowd

Fans that remember power hitters who didn't strike out much (where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?) often complain about the high number of strikeouts in today's game. Players like Dave Kingman and Rob Deer were disparaged for the damage they did to their teams by not making contact. Of course, a strikeout is not always the worst outcome of a trip to the plate: a double play is even worse.

I want to find the players with the highest and lowest career strikeout rates (SO/PA). I'm going to use Baseball-Reference.com's minimum requirement for career rate stats: a player must have 3000 or more PA in his career. Also, strikeouts weren't recorded for batters in both major leagues until 1913 so I'm not going to look up players before then. Any players who played before and after this time will only have their plate appearances from 1913 forward counted.

Most Career SO/PA, 1913-2007, min. 3000 PA

Rank	Name	PA	SO	SO/PA
1	Rob Deer	4512	1409	.312
2	Jose Hernandez	5089	1391	.273
3	Pete Incaviglia	4677	1277	.273
4	Adam Dunn	4098	1092	.266
5	Brad Wilkerson	3444	879	.255
6	Cory Snyder	3933	992	.252
7	Don Lock	3116	776	.249
8	Steve Balboni	3440	856	.249
9	Ron Kittle	3013	744	.247
10	Preston Wilson	4436	1085	.245
11	Dave Kingman	7429	1816	.244
12	Gorman Thomas	5486	1339	.244
13	Jim Thome	8427	2043	.242
14	Dean Palmer	5513	1332	.242
15	Henry Rodriguez	3343	803	.240
16	Pat Burrell	4743	1137	.240
17	Jose Conseco	8129	1942	.239
18	Mike Cameron	6299	1500	.238
19	Jay Buhner	5927	1406	.237
20	Nate Colbert	3863	902	.233

Fewest Career SO/PA, 1913-2007, min. 3000 PA

Rank	Name	PA	SO	SO/PA
1	Joe Sewell	8329	114	.014
2	Lloyd Waner	8326	173	.021
3	Nellie Fox	10349	216	.021
4	Tommy Holmes	5565	122	.022
5	Tris Speaker	9365	220	.023
6	Emil Verban	3110	74	.024
7	Stuffy McInnis	7325	189	.026
8	Andy High	4969	130	.026
9	Homer Summa	3318	88	.027
10	Sam Rice	10246	275	.027
11	Frankie Frisch	10100	272	.027
12	Dale Mitchell	4357	119	.027
13	Charlie Hollocher	3390	94	.028
14	Jimmy Brown	3832	110	.029
15	Johnny Cooney	3675	107	.029
16	Billy Southworth	4927	148	.030
17	Frank McCormick	6207	189	.030
18	Buddy Hassett	3807	116	.030
19	Ossie Vitt	4188	131	.031
20	Eddie Collins	9052	286	.032

Joe Sewell Not-So-Fun Fact: He was installed at shortstop for the Cleveland Indians following Ray Chapman's death during the 1920 season. Chapman died after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays. Some people believe that pitch has been the major factor keeping Mays out of the Hall of Fame.