Q&A: Honeycutt on the art of the strikeout

Hitters are striking out in record-setting numbers.

Individual pitchers, however, aren’t coming close to compiling record-setting strikeout totals.

Since the beginning of 2000, hitters have struck out so often that they have accumulated the 12 highest single-season strikeout totals since the creation of Major League Baseball.

But in 2015, Clayton Kershaw, with 301 strikeouts, became the first pitcher since ’02 to reach the 300 level, when the D-backs’ Randy Johnson (334) and Curt Schilling (316) exceeded that plateau.

Pitchers are throwing harder than ever, and hitters are swinging harder than ever. But the strikeout totals are more spread out, given the nature of a game where pitchers are working less.

It is not like it was in the 1970s, when 9 of the 38 seasons in which a pitcher struck out 300 batters were amassed — including five times by Nolan Ryan.

Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt discussed the art of the strikeout in this week’s Q&A:

MLB.com: Is there still a fascination with strikeouts?

Honeycutt: A pitcher needs to come up with something that you can correctly contact, and something that you can get a swing and miss with. [Pitchers] that have two pitches that [they] get swings and misses with — or Kershaw that has three pitches that are swing-and-miss pitches — become the elite of the elite. Going back to your question, sure. I think anybody loves strikeouts. At the same time, using Kershaw as an example, [pitchers] have to learn to manage the game, pitch-count wise, even if [one] is a strikeout pitcher.

MLB.com: It seems pitch counts are such a part of the game now that strikeouts aren’t quite what they used to be for an individual, but hitters are striking out more than ever.

Honeycutt: That’s just the difference in hitters today. Everybody had a …

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