A Walk is as Good as a Spit

[DOUGHBOYS]

During our time of study over the off season, analysts enjoy using bb/k ratios for hitters as an indicator.
When I read these, it's an indicator for me to stop reading and move on.
I know, I know, it has been drilled into us by sabremetricians (shuddup spellchecker, I like that word!) that a swell bb/k ratio is a good thing.
To which I say, Bunk you!

There are some who think that obp should take the place of batting average in roto.
To which I say again, Bunk you! Again.
Writers seem to love their walks.
Walks are merits.
Strike outs, demerits.
A walk is an occurrance. Something that happens.Not something a batter strives for when taking their place in the batters box.
And yes, it is true that some batters year after year draw more walks than other players year after year.
So what?
Adam Dunn walks a lot and so does Joey Votto. Different animals. Mr. Apple, meet Mr. Orange.
When Dunn does swing, it is more south to north, hoping to propel the ball in a skyward arch.
A swing not compatible for batting average.
Votto's swing is more compact and level.
Both are picky.
Does taking more walks make them better?
Do we rank them higher because of walks?
Are they helping their own teams more?
Let's look.

Here are the five leaders in walks this year-
Joey Votto
Ben Zobrist
Adam Dunn
Chase Headley
Carlos Santana
Of these five, only Votto is hitting more than .260
Taking more pitches does not necessitate better batting averages.
Of the five, only Zobrist is helping his team by walking.
He is a table setter.
The other four are hitters that most pitchers would like to avoid to work themselves down in the lineup to lesser hitters. Not to mention that they are for the most part, base cloggers.
Base cloggers force a team to get two hits to score them after they've been walked.
Adam Dunn has driven me crazy his whole career.
Pickiest power hitter of all.
Hurts whatever team he's playing for and hurts our fantasy teams too.
His batting average could not suffer much more of a hit by extending his zone. His bb's, even with Konerko hitting behind him, usually go wasted. Even if doubling, odds are that Dunn does not score.
Meaning minus the home run, it'll take two hits to score Dunn.
As a pitcher, I like the odds.

Jose Reyes is a hitter we WANT to walk. Using his speed to steal bases is a benefit. Both to the Marlins and to our fantasy teams.Reyes has a 21bb/11k ratio. Just looking at that, we'd think he must be having a terrific year.
He's not.
Starlin Castro has a 4bb/22k ratio.
Horrible. Bad year?
Nope, a terrific year.

We can't look at walks as an overall good thing. It has to be done on a case by case basis. A walk for one hitter may be of help, to others not.
We know where Dunn is headed after a walk.
First base.
In my mind, first base for Dunn is like buying 25% of his head stone because more than likely, he'll die on those bases.

Nobody cares about Josh Hamilton's walks, or Adam Jones, or even Omar Infante's walks.
Why?
Because those players all have more homers than walks.
Yep, they have more homers than walks.
And that makes everything ok.
Screw their ratios.
Ratios, in season, are only talked about if a player is not hitting.
My whipping boy, Ryan Sweeney has a horrible ratio of five walks to 25 strike outs.
It does not matter. Sweeney is hitting .322
Danny Valencia has a 2/23 ratio and analysts use that as a major factor for Valencia's demotion.


Billy Butler only has seven walks this year.
Perfect!
I don't want Billy Butler walking!
Butler has 40 hits, he has the seven walks and he has six home runs.
Put all those together and guess how many runs Butler has scored this year?
Seriously, go ahead, guess.
14.
He has knocked himself in almost as much as other Royals have.
I want Billy Butler hacking, driving in runs. Not clogging up my bases while pitchers go after lesser hitters.
Odds are that once on base, Butler remains on base.
Travis Hafner is a walks guy. 24 walks. 27 hits. Four home runs. 11 runs.
Irritating.

And there are some who want to reward these players by changing batting average, as a category, to on base percentage.
Why?
Look. If I want a pointless batting average I'll draft Ryan Sweeney. At least he can say he is hitting the ball while not contributing much to other categories.
If wanting obp, I'll take Hafner who ranks #19 in the category.
It's silly to change it to reward the Hafner's of the world. In the end, they are doing a greater disservice in taking a pitch, than Sweeney is by simply putting a ball in play.
Even though it lowers my batting average by a microbe, I'd rather have Hafner striking out going after a pitch than taking a borderline ball four.
It helps his team by hacking. It helps OUR team if he's hacking.
Walking is an overrated stat. It is associated with a skill that our little league coaches adored.
GOOD EYE!
A walk is as good as a hit.
But, it isn't.
At least not for most hitters in the middle of a lineup.
And not for most of the hitters on our fantasy teams.