In a baseball game, a team might decide to walk a batter on purpose, putting him on first base instead of letting him try to hit. This usually happens to an excellent hitter at the plate.
Last season, Juan Soto was intentionally walked 23 times, most in the MLB. All these 23 IBB happened with runners on base. It seems like a good idea to put Soto on when runners are on base. In 2021, Juan Soto posted a batting average of .316 with runners on base and his OPS was over 1.000. He’s a dangerous hitter, no doubt.
Moreover, the 2021 AL MVP Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked 20 times last year. It’s interesting to note that Ohtani was intentionally walked once with the bases empty. In his historic 2021 season, Ohtani was hitting .299/.437/.654 with runners on base and with bases empty, Ohtani was batting .229/.325/.551. He’s surely more dangerous when runners are on base. Sometimes, putting Ohtani on should be a better choice. By the way, as a pitcher, Ohtani recorded 2 intentional walks last season.
Meanwhile, it’s worth mentioning that these 5 players in the top 5 of the chart are all left-handed hitters.
At the same time, among active players, who’s the leader for intentional walks?
There’s no doubt that Albert Pujols has a great career. He will surely be inducted to the Hall of Fame. By far in his career, he already drew 1345 walks and has 315 intentional walks. In particular, he was intentionally walked 44 times in 2009. However, he was intentionally walked only 3 times last season. In the meantime, Miguel Cabrera has a great career as well. So far, Cabrera has 1199 walks and 235 times are intentional. In 2010, he had 32 intentional walks. Nonetheless, Miguel Cabrera didn’t have any intentional walks in 2021. He has played 19 seasons in the MLB and the 2021 season is the only one that he doesn’t record any IBB.
Also, 6 other players each have 100+ intentional walks so far. 4 of them are left-handed hitters.
In addition, since 2017, teams no longer need to throw four balls in order to intentionally walk a batter. A manager can just signal an intentional walk from the dugout. Hence, MLB pitchers can intentionally walk a batter without making any pitches.
Last year, Phil Bickford had 7 intentional walks, most among MLB pitchers. Nevertheless, Bickford actually had a great 2021 season. He posted a 2.81 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP over 51.1 innings. Opponents only hit .197 against him.
Finally, four other pitchers each had 6 intentional walks last year. Among those 4 pitchers, Anthony Bass and Hirokazu Sawamura each finished the 2021 season with an under 4 ERA. However, Sawamura had a 1.45 WHIP in 2021 and Bass owned a 1.29 WHIP.
Intentional walks are a key strategy in baseball games. A team normally makes a decision to avoid letting a hitter at the plate hit and decides to pitch against the hitter on deck. Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani each had 20+ intentional walks last season. In the 2022 season, will they be intentionally walked more? Will Miguel Cabrera have another season without any intentional walks?
No comments:
Post a Comment