Comments on: Walkin’ My Baby Back Home

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:10:31 +0000

One thing that never seems to be taken into account is that the Dodgers would have many more at bats than the Royals even if each player played the same number of games since they hit better. A better means of comparison is walks per at bat. This would take into account the difference in games played and offense in general. (Sorry if someone else commented on this, I have not read all of the replies.)

By: Richard Aronson

Richard Aronson — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:50:57 +0000

Bellweather @ 38: Yes, Juan Pierre is a Dodger. No, he’s not one of the 8 with 50 walks or so, nor will he be. Manny’s the regular Left Fielder, barring the odd suspension here and there.

By: JoeyO

JoeyO — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:38:51 +0000

@ 51: Travis M. Nelson

This is correct. If you remove Ka’aihue you end up with 8.3% (where 8.7% is the average)

Maybe that’s why Moore seemingly refuses to use him, lol.

By: Joe R

Joe R — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:06:03 +0000

Travis @ 50

I fully suspect the Rangers would lead the Red Sox in the WC race right now if someone among their regulars (other than Red Sox farm system product David Murphy) could work a count. Ron Washington will probably win MoY, which is ironic since the hacker mentality will probably cost the Rangers in the end.

2008 they were 3rd in the AL in walks, first by a mile in OPS+, and led the league in runs.

2009, they’re 12 in the AL in walks, 4th in OPS+, and 5th in runs.

And before anyone tries to attribute all the difference to Bradley leaving and Hamilton’s injuries, Young is also having a monster ‘09 after a meh ‘08, and no Bradley means a lot more Nelson Cruz. Salty, Kinsler, and Byrd have all taken steps back in 2009 at the dish.

By: Lazy Perfectionist

Lazy Perfectionist — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:12:22 +0000

Joe in SI: Why do some baseball people desperately want their pitchers to avoid walks while not caring if their hitters draw them?

Me: That’s your buddy Gardy in a nutshell…

By: Travis M. Nelson

Travis M. Nelson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:05:32 +0000

And responding to JoeyO, the only reason the Royals’ AAA affiliate is above average in drawing walks is that the Royals have kept Kila Ka’aihue down there all season and played Mike Jacobs and Billy Butler at first base and DH. Ka’aihue’s got 102 walks, but only two others on the team have even half that.

By: Travis M. Nelson

Travis M. Nelson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:59:57 +0000

To be fair (not that the Royals deserve it), Ian Kinsler leads the Texas Rangers in walks with 49, one more than Of Jesus, but the Rangers are 7th in MLB in runs scored because they hit lots of homers. If you can do something well, you can allow other things to go.

The Royals’ offense, however, does nothing well, really. OK, so that’s not precisely true. They’ve got 45 triples, which leads the majors right now, but that doesn’t mean much, since those guys rarely score anyway.

By: Joe R

Joe R — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:44:45 +0000

For further salt in the wound, keep in mind that an “old school” guy in Ned Colletti runs the Dodgers.

So the Royals are old school flat earth loonies even compared to the old school. Oohrah.

By: Only Baseball Matters » Blog Archive » …. And the ugly

Only Baseball Matters » Blog Archive » …. And the ugly — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:26:38 +0000

[...] Posnanski notes that the Dodgers Matt Kemp has more walks than any player on the Kansas City Royals: …. [...]

By: JoeyO

JoeyO — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:37:02 +0000

it just dawned on me… Moore may not want walks.

Follow me for a second.

Moore hires Trey Hillman off his success as a manager in Japan. Japan is sometimes thought to be roughly 20 years behind the US with regard to some statistical focus as it pertains to the outcome. Specifically, they are said to still consider a Strikeout a complete disgrace and … a walk is generally a bit of a disappointment! Players are usually stressed contact from my understanding. Maybe someone more familiar with Japanese baseball can elaborate or correct me, but it is fairly wildly said as far as I have seen.

Now this phantom “plan” Moore constantly talks about might just be a more Japanese influenced style – Pitching, Defense, Speed and pure Contact at the plate.

Is it possibly true? Well, lets take a look at their minor league clubs BB% against the league average and see if we can find a trend

Dominican Lg – 11.0 BB% versus an average of 10.6% (Above average)

Arizona Lg – 8.5 BB% versus an average of 8.6% (Below average)

Burlington (R) – 7.6 BB% versus an average of 8.1% (Below average)

Idaho Falls – 8.6 BB% versus an average of 8.8% (Below average)

Burlington (A) – 8.0 BB% versus an average of 8.7% (Below average)

Wilmington – 7.7 BB% versus an average of 8.8% (Below average)

NW Arkansas – 9.0 BB% versus an average of 9.2% (Below average)

Omaha – 9.0 BB% versus an average of 8.7% (Above average)

Kansas City – 7.2% versus an AL average of 8.8% (Below average)

Only the Dominican League team and AAA Omaha have a BB% higher then the league average. It might be pointing to a bit of an unspoken organizational philosophy under Moore. And one of his titles in Atlanta was also the director of international scouting, maybe this is what it stems from.

Could be a fluke, but…