Driving it Deep: MLB Players Who Always Swing for the Fences

No collision sounds sweeter than when a baseball meets the sweet spot of a wooden bat.

It energizes a ballpark—an entire fan-base—whether they are witnessing it live, watching from the comfort of their living rooms or listening to it in their car.

Hometown announcers, like Bob Uecker, exude the same unmitigated joy, bringing it to the masses as they exclaim into their microphones, "And there's a drive.."

Sure, there are superstars who can get the job done, but there's another segment of players who make a living, well, living on the edge. They swing for the fences, resulting in deep, towering drives, but on the flip side, they are as likely to wind up with a big swing-and-miss, one that can leave a breeze in its wake.

They get their fair share of singles, doubles, maybe even a triple or two, but at the end of the day, it's all about the long ball for this group of batters.

Let's meet the sluggers, shall we?

Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh Pirates

When you hit 16 home runs in only 94 games, as Pirates' third baseman Pedro Alvarez did during his rookie season in 2010, you clearly have the ability to drive the ball deep into the outfield bleachers.

Unfortunately for Alvarez, he's been far more likely to swing and miss, something he's done nearly 35 percent of the time in his career. His swing-for-the-fences approach has left him with a putrid career batting average of .220, which certainly isn't good enough to cut it as an everyday player.

But all is not lost—while he continues to struggle in 2012, Alvarez is on pace to set a personal best in home runs for a season and is still young enough to adjust at the plate and get back on track.

J.P. Arencibia, Toronto Blue Jays

What did Blue Jays' catcher J.P. Arencibia do with the first pitch he saw in the major leagues? He hit a two-run home run deep to left field off Tampa Bay Rays' starting pitcher, "Big Game" James Shields.

What did he do later in that same game, this time against Rays' reliever Dale Thayer? Deposit the first pitch he saw deep into the right field stands, so as not to give the hometown Toronto fans the idea that he was playing favorites.

There's no question that the 26-year-old can drive the ball over any outfield wall he chooses, but he needs to make contact for that to happen. His career 30-percent strikeout rate, resulting in a career .215 average, isn't good.

With über-prospect Travis d'Arnaud mashing in the minors, Arcencibia is running out of time to start driving the ball on a more consistent basis.

Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds

Along with Brandon Phillips and perennial MVP candidate Joey Votto, Jay Bruce gives the Cincinnati Reds a potent trio of batters in the middle of their lineup.

While Bruce has slugged at least 21 home runs in each of his first four major league seasons—including a career-best 32 in 2011—it's possible that the Reds, and Bruce, would have more success if he wasn't as prone to striking out as he is, whiffing 26 percent of the time.

But when the 25-year-old does make clean contact, the sound of the ball exploding off of his bat leaves no question as to whether the ball is going over the wall—it's only a question of how deep into the night it's going to travel.

Adam Dunn, Chicago White Sox

If there was a king of players who swing for the fences, Adam Dunn would sit on the throne.

When he hit .159 with 11 home runs and 179 strikeouts last year, it sure looked as if Dunn could be done at the age of 31. Instead, he's come back with a vengeance in 2012.

His 23 home runs lead all of baseball, and he's on pace to set a career high in both drives deep into the night and strikeouts—his 100 strikeouts are by far the most for any player in the game.

But this is typical Adam Dunn. Eight seasons have seen him go deep at least 30 times, and five of those wound up with numbers of 40 or higher. Amazingly enough, he's never led the league in home runs.

Strikeouts, however, are a different story. From 2004 through 2006, nobody struck out as much as Dunn, something that he's almost certain of doing again in 2012—his 100 strikeouts leads baseball by a wide margin.

Adam Dunn is the prototypical swing-for-the-fences player—his career totals of 388 home runs and 1,909 strikeouts leave little doubt of that.

Carlos Peña, Tampa Bay Rays

Carlos Peña had his greatest success as a player with the Tampa Bay Rays, so it only made sense that he'd return to the team in 2012 after spending last year in Chicago with the Cubs.

From 2007 through 2010, Peña averaged 36 home runs a season hitting in the middle of the Rays' lineup. He also struck out, on average, 157 times, and wound up with an unimpressive .238 batting average.

Swinging for the fences has resulted in some mammoth home runs for the 34-year-old, including an opening day grand slam off of New York Yankees' ace CC Sabathia on opening day this year.

Since then, Peña has only driven the ball over the outfield fences seven times, while striking out 76 times, putting him on a pace that will result in a new career high for strikeouts in a season.

Were he able to lower his 36-percent strikeout rate on the season and make contact more consistently, perhaps the Rays would be able to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the AL East, where seemingly every team has a legitimate shot to win the division.

Mark Reynolds, Baltimore Orioles

Mark Reynolds could give Adam Dunn a run for his money to be crowned king of the swing-for-the-fences crowd.

Over his first five seasons in the major leagues, Reynolds has averaged 32 home runs and 196 strikeouts, breaking the 200-strikeout plateau three times and barely missing it in 2011 when he finished four off the pace.

Reynolds battled injury in May, missing two weeks on the disabled list. As a result, he's found himself poised to come nowhere near his career averages for home runs or strikeouts, but he's still on pace to whiff 129 times—which would be the exact number of strikeouts that he had as a rookie in 2007.

Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs

Since breaking into the big leagues with the New York Yankees on a regular basis in 2001, Alfonso Soriano has averaged 31 home runs a season. That's impressive, and his combination of raw power and speed made him one of the most exciting players in all of baseball.

But along with the good comes the bad. Over the same period, Soriano averaged 128 strikeouts per season as well—just over 22 percent of the time.

As age and injury have robbed him of his speed, Soriano has increasingly become dependent on driving the ball deep while striking out at the same rate.

With 12 home runs and 51 strikeouts so far in 2012, Soriano is well on his way to making it 12 consecutive seasons with more than 20 home runs and 100 strikeouts. With the Cubs desperate to trade him, the only thing left to wonder about is: With which team will he achieve the feat?

Drew Stubbs, Cincinnati Reds

With the power to drive the ball into the bleachers and a set of wheels that allows him to run wild on the basepaths, Drew Stubbs should be a household name.

Instead, only those who follow the game know that when he's not hitting home runs—an average of 21 over a full season—he's striking out, which he's done 32 percent of the time over his four-year career.

Stubbs led the league with 205 strikeouts in 2011, and while he's currently on the 15-day disabled list with a strained oblique, he's well on his way to finish the season with close to 20 home runs and nearly 150 strikeouts.

Chris Young, Arizona Diamondbacks

Similar to Drew Stubbs with a combination of power and speed, Diamondbacks' center fielder Chris Young has more power but not as quick a set of wheels as his doppelganger with the Reds has.

After a torrid start to the 2012 season where he belted five home runs in the first 11 games, Young found himself on the disabled list and out of action for nearly a month.

Since returning, Young has struggled mightily, posting a .171 average with no power and striking out once every four at-bats.

But from 2007 through 2011, an average year for the 28-year-old saw him club 23 home runs, steal 20 bases and strikeout 145 times—more than enough to qualify as someone who loves swinging for the fences.

Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee Brewers

Second basemen traditionally aren't the type who swing for the fences, but Rickie Weeks definitely falls into that category.

When he's been healthy—he's only played in more than 130 games once over the past eight seasons—Weeks has flashed power to all fields, averaging 14 home runs and 94 strikeouts over 95 games played. Over a full 162-game season, that works out to 24 home runs and 165 strikeouts.

On a team that watched its biggest slugger, Prince Fielder, leave via free agency this past winter, the Brewers desperately need Weeks to swing and miss far less frequently. His 35-percent strikeout rate in 2012 is nearly 10 percent higher than the 26-percent rate that he's carried throughout his career.