Walks v. hits

[pfairban]

This was supposed to be in the "value of walks" thread and everything keeps showing up screwed up on my screen, so I double posted. Sorry!

[mwiggins]

I'll just make this quick point to start it off: a player who watches the ball sail by will never get more than one base off the walk and his teammates will never advance more than one base, if they're even on base; also there's no possibility of silly pitchers throwing balls over infielders heads and allowing runs to score. A player who consistenly swings at hittable balls has the chance of an extra base hit and his teammates have the chance of being really fast or of an error occurring.



And a player who "watches teh ball sail by" will never make an out when he walks. Some thing the player who "swings at hittable balls" is more than likely to do, esp. since he's swinging at pitches outside of the strikezone, thereby increasing his chances of making an out.

He's also playing into a pitcher's hand by not making the pitcher give him a better pitch. A free-swinger just lets the pitcher win more often than someone who has the discipline to lay off pitches outside of the strikezone.

Take Ted Williams. He takes a lot of walks, but he's also a much better hitter than say, Stan Musial.

[pfairban]

I think anybody who's read the Musial thread knows my position here. I've seen it coming up when talking about other guys, so I think it's worth having a thread devoted to it.

I'll just make this quick point to start it off: a player who watches the ball sail by will never get more than one base off the walk and his teammates will never advance more than one base, if they're even on base; also there's no possibility of silly pitchers throwing balls over infielders heads and allowing runs to score. A player who consistenly swings at hittable balls has the chance of an extra base hit and his teammates have the chance of being really fast or of an error occurring.

And of course this debate is a non-starter when you're talking about a guy who hits 280 with 240 hits and 280 total bases v. a guy who hits 330 with 240 hits and 380 total bases.

[Tango Tiger]

What's your question?

We know the impact of a walk relative to other events, as noted in my post in your other thread.