Before last night's game, Cust had reached a Nirvana of sorts. Cust entered Wednesday night's game with 1704 plate appearances. In those 1704 plate appearances, he has walked 305 times and struck out 547 times. Add those two together and you get 852 or exactly 50% of his plate appearances. The number is freaky.
What that means is that in Cust's entire career, 50% of his trudges up to the plate result in a ball not put in play. If you add in his homers at 80, then that brings the total to 55% of his plate appearances where the fielders can sit it out and take a rest. Has there ever been anyone like Cust? Ever?
The sad thing is that Cust is regressing instead of getting better. His strikeout rate is better at 33% this year compared to 40% last year (39% for his career). But his last three years show a decline in his OPS. In 2007 it was .912. Last year it was .851 and this year he's down to .777. He is also playing a lot in the field which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It might have done so when Giambi was there, but not now. He's a DH if there ever was one.
But, he is Jack Cust and there is no one else like him. What did he do Wednesday night? He had four plate appearances. He struck out twice and he walked twice. It was a typical Jack Cust night. But it did mess up the symmetry. Now the total of his walks and strikeouts compared to his plate appearances is at 50.12%
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