On a Pace (pitchers, ball, pitcher, New York Yankees)

[Grandstander]

Melky Cabrera is still racking up the at bats. He has not drawn a walk since my post about him ten days back. He now has 78 plate appearances and ONE..Count Em..One....base on balls.

He is now on a pace to collect 734 at bats (Rollins' record is 716) and draw ten walks for the year.

His batting average is .273. His OBA is .278.

He has however, fallen behind the immortal Omar Moreno. Melky is on a pace for 200 hits, 10 walks and 534 outs. Omar The Outmaker's record is 560 outs.

[filihok]

Valdamir Guerrero who has walked 720 times in his career is on pace to walk 0 times this season.

With a little luck he may challenge Melky and Moreno as he is on pace for 524 outs.

[Grandstander]

Melky must read this forum. On the very day (Wednesday) that I was pointing out his accomplishments in the field of avoiding base on balls, he was walked twice in one game, tripling his total for the year and boosting his walk pace to 26 for 2011. Yesterday he was back to normal form, five plate appearances with two hits and no base on balls....and dang if he wasn't the hero of the game, driving in the winning run in the top of the 9th against division rival Cleveland.

No sense crying over spilled Melky while we still have Vlad who has now collected 75 at bats in 75 plate appearances...no walks.

I doubt that he can get through an entire season without drawing at least one free pass, I mean sooner or later some situation will call for an intentional walk to him. Maybe we should get up a friendly pool and make guesses as to what date will feature Guerrero's first base on balls of the year. The Benjie Molina Memorial Pool or such.

I think that he has it in him to get through the entire month swinging at everything and I'll take the Monday, May 2nd game against the White Sox.

[filihok]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

I doubt that he can get through an entire season without drawing at least one free pass, I mean sooner or later some situation will call for an intentional walk to him. Maybe we should get up a friendly pool and make guesses as to what date will feature Guerrero's first base on balls of the year. The Benjie Molina Memorial Pool or such.

I think that he has it in him to get through the entire month swinging at everything and I'll take the Monday, May 2nd game against the White Sox.

I have tomorrow vs Freddy Garcia

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by filihok

I have tomorrow vs Freddy Garcia

You've still got tomorrow, but it will be against Sabathia who has walked six of the seventy one right handed batters which he has faced.

[jtur88]

Carlos Quentin is still on a pace to hit 89 Doubles.

Troy Tulowitzki leading in homers, on an exactly 60 pace.

A's first-baseman Daric Barton is on a pace to make 40 errors at that difficult and demanding position. That would be the most since 1908, when they played with a glove with no webbing or even strings between the thumb and fingers.

[Grandstander]

Albert Pujols is on a pace for 49 homeruns, and 8 doubles.

Adrian Beltre is on a pace for 51 homeruns and 9 walks.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by filihok

I have tomorrow vs Freddy Garcia

Alackaday, twas not to be. Vlad went 0-4 today against NY, no walks.

[filihok]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Alackaday, twas not to be. Vlad went 0-4 today against NY, no walks.

Ok. I'll take tomorrow vs Freddy Garcia

Jose Bautista has 7 home runs in 20 games. That puts him on pace for 57. Not a bad follow up to his 54 last season

The Chicago Cubs at 10-10 are on pace to finish the season 81-81. This season they have been 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, and 10-10.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by filihok

Ok. I'll take tomorrow vs Freddy Garcia

.

You will have to submit another entry fee.

I wonder...who was the greatest non walker of all time? We would need to agree upon some standards such as say, a minimum of 1500 plate appearances in order to be considered.

In searching for our ultimate free swinger, names do not serve as an appropriate guide. For example, Stan Hack was a career .301 hitter who boosted his OBA to an admirable .394 by drawing 80-90 walks each season. Conversely, Harry The Hat Walker collected a mere 245 free passes in a career which featured 2,981 plate appearances.

Because I am lazy, and because lazy people such as me always rely on the energetic sorts who are willing to do the homework, I leave it to you, filihok, to come up with the data based answer against which there can be no argument.

I do champion a candidate, although I do not know if there is someone out there who was even more skilled at avoiding the walk. I proudly nominate the Oakland A's Rob Picciolo. Despite being a bad player, Rob managed a nine season career which featured 1720 plate appearances.....and 25..yup...25 base on balls. That is a base on balls every 68.8 plate appearances. Rob had some outstanding single season campaigns. In 1980 he had 281 plate appearances and walked just twice. In a three season span, '82-'84, Picciolo racked up 233 plate appearances accompanied by two walks, both of them in '82.

I looked at a few others based on my memory of them as wild hackers, but Alfredo Griffin, who never met a pitch he didn't like, still drew a walk every 21.6 plate appearances. Benjie Molina, who played as if unaware that you were allowed not to swing, was at 24.8 plate appearances per walk. Not even in Picciolo's neighborhood much less back yard.

So, unless and until you discover someone with a worse walk rate than Rob, I shall view him as the King of Swing.