Miami Marlins heart of the lineup needs help, 3 reasons why

Reason 1 - Strikeouts

The middle of the lineup can be dangerous for teams to navigate as they try to balance living outside the strike zone to avoid a power hitter and keeping the ball down to induce ground ball outs and avoid the big inning home run.  The Miami Marlins GM Kim Ng’s philosophical approach to the roster is one of contact but power hitters who have big numbers often sacrifice that stat.  Two of the bigger hitters in the Marlins lineup do just that but is the trade off worth it?

Jazz Chisholm has a 31.2% strikeout rate this year but he has only 183 plate appearances.  Chisholm does however have a 4.9% home run rate and has 9 home runs so far this season.  I would say that he is a good trade off as he also steals bases and walks at a higher rate of 6.6% and his career average is 7.3%.

Garrett Cooper also strikes out at a high rate of 29.7% and he walks at a much lower rate of 5.3% as compared to Jazz, and his home run rate is lower at 4%.  The other two mainstays at the middle of the order are Bryan De La Cruz and Jesus Sanchez.  

DLC has only a 23.7% strikeout rate and he has a 6.9% walk rate but his home run rate is much lower at 3.1%.  Similarly, Sanchez has a 26.3% strikeout rate with a 7.4% walk rate. His home run rate is high at 4.6% but that is hard to gauge in only 200 at bats as he has had only 840 plate appearances in his career.