I'm not going to say if it was last year he would have struck out. Nobody can know that. The overall result can be seen in the NL stats. Equally important, he has drawn 32 walks, only 13 fewer than he drew all of last season. He plays at a high level all the time.
Some guys can do that once in a while.
Somehow Sammy does that every day. They misread people in the limelight. Before he joined the Cubs, Mieske didn't have any preconceived notions about Sosa, only that he had a reputation for swinging at the outside breaking ball a foot out of the strike zone. It's very easy to be around him, very easy to talk to him. I'm fascinated by his ability.