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The Rays Discover Walks

Pat Burrell's career OBP is .367.

In the Rays history, 180 different individual seasons have recorded 100 or more plate appearances. Only 23 have had an OBP greater than or equal to .367. That number declines 20 with 200 plate appearances, 16 with 300, 10 with 400, and 9 with 500 - B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena own a total of four of those nine. Fred McGriff owns three, Jose Canseco and Ben Grieve each own one.

The Rays never really became walk conscious until Friedman and company took over. Observe:

Year Rays BB LL BB LL-Rays
1998 393 678 285
1999 544 770 226
2000 558 775 217
2001 456 678 222
2002 456 643 187
2003 420 684 264
2004 469 705 236
2005 412 653 241
2006 441 672 231
2007 545 689 144
2008 626 646 20

Or, in dandy graph form:

Raysbb_medium

Pretty, no? I would also like to note the decline in walks since 2000, then a sudden spike in 2004. Some will note the Rays climbing over the 500 walks plateau twice early on, and that's great, but look at the differences listed in the table again. 558 walks in 2000 is like 429 walks in 2008.

 

Year LAVG BB
1998 548
1999 596
2000 608
2001 527
2002 542
2003 530
2004 541
2005 507
2006 528
2007 536
2008 545

Raysavg_medium

I believe a few commenters brought up how the lineup has changed since Friedman arrived. Physically, the names and numbers have changed, but there's also some philosophical differences between what Chuck LaMar and company wanted in a hitter and what Andrew Friedman and company want in a hitter. That's not groundbreaking, but it's pretty clear part of Friedman's recipe calls for walks.

0 recs  |  Comment 18 comments |

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Top Josh Paul Pornos- Big Navi Stroking, 2pitchers1cup, BJ to the Balls, Riggans Your Thingans

by SRQman on Jan 9, 2009 1:01 AM EST reply actions   1 recs

Was that Damon Hollins with that song?

I remember laughing my ass off whenever I heard it. Maybe it was Craw

Anyway, as I was lying in the puddle, I think I may have found a way for us to get Bonds and Griffey, and we wouldn't have to give up that much.

~George Costanza~

by Sandy Kazmir on Jan 9, 2009 12:31 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I did not know that anybody actually used that song.

That’s absolutely horrible news, because the song is retarded; Hollins probably isn’t a bad guess.

by kericr on Jan 9, 2009 1:09 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Not a Hyphy fan?

My brother new a crazy broad in boarding school from San Fran that had HYPHY tatted on the inside of her lip.

by rglass44 on Jan 9, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Call me old

But what the hell is Hyphy?

Vogt early, Vogt often.

by Brickhaus on Jan 9, 2009 4:01 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Wiki has a brief summary

Here. And honestly, I’m right on the borderline of being too old to know about this myself. You can do a google search for the standard terms if you want to know more.

by kericr on Jan 10, 2009 11:37 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

ooo ooo

I was one of them!

by BossmanJunior333 on Jan 9, 2009 2:06 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Interesting how the LL and Rays totals are in sync.

Could you maybe add the league-average data? I hadn’t realized league walk-rate had fluctuated so much.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 9, 2009 11:37 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Sure.

Year Walks
1998 548
1999 596
2000 608
2001 527
2002 542
2003 530
2004 541
2005 507
2006 528
2007 536
2008 545

by R.J. Anderson on Jan 9, 2009 11:46 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Cool, thanks.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Jan 9, 2009 1:36 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I just saw the first pitch swing vs. walks article on FG

Since we seemed like the most extreme outlier any thoughts on if that is due to regress?

Anyway, as I was lying in the puddle, I think I may have found a way for us to get Bonds and Griffey, and we wouldn't have to give up that much.

~George Costanza~

by Sandy Kazmir on Jan 9, 2009 11:50 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

We had the lowest O-Swing% (which is good)

I’m not sure where Matthew is taking that series, but I think he’s going to theorize something like:

Swinging at the first pitch isn’t that bad if it’s a good pitch, and the teams who were cautious in swinging out of zone still drew a good number of walks.

Or maybe not.

by R.J. Anderson on Jan 9, 2009 11:53 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah hopefully he will add another couple of columns that include firstpitch_ball

firstpitch_swstrike, and firstpitch_calledstrike, or something with o-swing, who knows it was an interesting read with a lot of leads to track down.

Anyway, as I was lying in the puddle, I think I may have found a way for us to get Bonds and Griffey, and we wouldn't have to give up that much.

~George Costanza~

by Sandy Kazmir on Jan 9, 2009 12:30 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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