What team can’t use a good two-strike hitter, a commodity that isn’t all that easy to find. To succeed with two strikes, a hitter must not abandon his control of the strike zone when he’s down in the count. An ability to make consistent contact also works in his favor.

A look inside the numbers of the season just completed reveals one of 2007’s best two-strike hitters was Detroit’s Placido Polanco. Among players who faced at least 200 two-strike situations, Polanco batted a major league-high .350 -- 55 points higher than the next-highest mark, by Albert Pujols of the Cardinals.

Pujols, however, topped the majors by slugging .506 with two strikes, followed by Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder at .504. Twenty-three of Fielder’s 50 home runs came with two strikes, the most in the majors. Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard had 20 two-strike homers and drove in a big league-high 55 runs, even as he led the majors with 199 strikeouts.

Here’s a look at how these four players, and a few others, fared in two-strike counts.

Player. . . . . . . . . . . . .AB. . . .HR. . . RBI. . . BB. . . .K. . . AVG. . OBP. . SLG
Placido Polanco, Det. . .220. . . . .3. . . .19. . . 19. . . .30. . . 350. . .404. . .459
Albert Pujols, StL. . . . . 271. . . .13. . . .36. . . 25. . . .58. . . 295. . .358. . .506
Prince Fielder, Mil. . . . 282. . . .23. . . .47. . . 30. . . 121. . . 206. . .285. . .504
Ryan Howard, Phi. . . . .319. . . .20. . . .55. . . .32. . .199. . . 147. . .228. . .364
Todd Helton, Col. . . . . 302. . . . 8. . . .51. . . .47. . . .74. . . 281. . .375. . .440
Bobby Abreu, NYY. . . . 338. . . .10. . . .50. . . 44. . . 115. . . 266. . .352. . .444
Chipper Jones, Atl. . . . 216. . . .13. . . 39. . . .34. . . .75. . . 250. . .352. . .500

Both Fielder and Howard tended to be all-or-nothing guys with two strikes, and clearly Howard wasn’t anywhere near his best with one swing to make something happen. On the other hand, nearly half of Chipper Jones’ 29 home runs came when he faced a two-strike count -- in just 216 at-bats.

Arguably Polanco was the best at making contact down two strikes in the count. A key to his success in two-strike situations is his ability to put the ball in play. The Tigers second baseman has put 57.4 percent of his swings in play over the last three seasons, the highest percentage among all major leaguers who have seen at least 3,000 pitches during this span. He has missed on just 7.0 percent of his swings in these three years. Only David Eckstein (5.9), Luis Castillo (6.2) and Juan Pierre (6.3) have missed a smaller percentage of their total swings.