One more thing about walks and then they’ll never be mentioned in this space again. Er, not for a while. End of the week at least.
Okay, two things.
Thing one. Last year, Hamels had a walk rate that was worse than Halladay, Moyer, Blanton, Oswalt, Kendrick or Lee. But was it bad? The NL average was 3.32 walks per nine innings and Hamels walked 2.63 per nine. There were 39 NL pitchers who made at least 30 starts in 2010. Of those 39, Hamels’ walk rate was 14th-best.
| BB/9 | Rank BB/9 for Group | |
| Roy Halladay Ted Lilly Adam Wainwright Hiroki Kuroda Roy Oswalt Jason Hammel Chris Carpenter Mat Latos Kyle Kendrick Matt Cain Bronson Arroyo Tommy Hanson Rodrigo Lopez Cole Hamels Brett Myers Johnny Cueto Livan Hernandez Derek Lowe Tim Hudson Randy Wells Mike Pelfrey Paul Maholm Chris Volstad Wandy Rodriguez Jonathon Niese Tim Lincecum Anibal Sanchez Chad Billingsley Ian Kennedy Dave Bush Clayton Richard Clayton Kershaw Ryan Dempster Randy Wolf Yovani Gallardo Ubaldo Jimenez Barry Zito Jon Garland Jonathan Sanchez |
1.08 2.04 2.19 2.20 2.34 2.38 2.41 2.44 2.44 2.46 2.46 2.49 2.52 2.63 2.66 2.71 2.72 2.83 2.91 2.92 3.00 3.01 3.09 3.14 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.36 3.48 3.57 3.59 3.63 3.65 3.74 3.79 3.92 4.47 |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 |
So while Hamels saw his walk rate go in the wrong direction last year, and while it’s higher than the other guys we’re likely to see starting for the Phils in 2011, it’s not exactly awful.
Thing two.
Here’s the average walk rate for NL teams over the past four years, the walk rate for the Phillies over the last year and the Phillies rate over the average:
| NL BB/9 | PHI BB/9 | PHI/NL | |
| 2007 | 3.34 | 3.44 | 1.03 |
| 2008 | 3.45 | 3.31 | 0.96 |
| 2009 | 3.52 | 3.02 | 0.86 |
| 2010 | 3.32 | 2.57 | 0.77 |
So, not only have the Phillies decreased their walks per nine innings in each of the last three seasons, in each of those seasons the gap between the Phils and the rest of the NL has widened compared to the previous year. Also of note is that in 2008 and 2009, the walk rate went up for the league, but down for the Phillies.
Here’s the spring training schedule for the Phils.
This piece on “Phillies players under the radar” discusses Ben Francisco in right, saying “Suggesting that Francisco needs to platoon in rightfield with a Domonic Brown, a guy who can’t play the position and who managed 13 hits in spot play last season, is insulting. Brown is a raw talent who needs polish. Francisco is a major league baseball player.”
February 11th, 2011 on 10:00 am
Ha, no big deal. Halladay’s only almost twice as good at preventing walks than Ted Lilly at #2 on the list.
Dude is unfair and unreal.
Amaro for 3 Presidents in 2012.
February 11th, 2011 on 10:25 am
Must be a reason MLB listed Halliday as the best starter in all of baseball, huh. Or maybe two or three or four reasons. Probably the best measure is whether any team would trade their number one for ours. Even up. Would be fun to know. I would guess that there may be one or two that might pause, but not many. Giants? Rockies?
Hamels ius better thnn Bret Meyers. Geez. That is good to know. But let’s hope Kyle does not get too big headed. lol
February 11th, 2011 on 12:48 pm
Just cause he makes so much money, I’m sure there are teams that would prefer their #1 to Halladay. I’m pretty glad he’s with the Phils, though.
I’d love to see Kendrick get down to his 2007 walk levels again. He’s going to have to do something to improve on his ’08 and ’10 numbers.
February 11th, 2011 on 12:51 pm
Is 30 starts the right cutoff to compare pitchers? It’s working out to under 2 1/2 pitchers per team.
February 11th, 2011 on 1:22 pm
I think that’s a good point that it leaves out a lot of pitchers. I was just trying to find a group of people who made a similar number of starts as Hamels did. The average walks per nine for that group of 39 pitchers is 2.92. The average for the league was 3.32. So Hamels is at least doing better than either of those groups, if not the group of SP on his own team.
February 11th, 2011 on 3:18 pm
Please, please, PLEASE keep the columns coming on walks.
I do think that Francisco will be a big part of the team this year, either because Brown or Ibanez (or both) struggle.
Aces and catchers on Monday. Looking forward to the footage of Halladay throwing to a non-descript catcher on Sports Center.
February 11th, 2011 on 4:14 pm
I agree. Shifting from walks to Ben Francisco next week. I think he gets a lot of PA this year. I think the biggest question is how long the Phils stick with Brown if he’s with the team to start the year and starts slow. I would guess not long, but we’ll see where he starts and how. Hopefully if he’s with the Phils he comes out swinging a big bat and it doesn’t matter. I like having Francisco on the team, but I don’t think he should be playing regularly at a corner OF against righties. The thing that’s unclear is how capable Brown is going to be at playing against righties in 2011.
February 11th, 2011 on 4:59 pm
You know, the whole right field thing is a little odd to me. With all of the investment made in this team, a team of “NOW” if ever there as one, it seems kind of odd to me that right field is so up in the air. Ben, who may not be able to play every day? Dom, who may be a talented prospect but the time for this team is NOW? Why have the Phillies decided to go into the spring with the choices for right field these two guys? Its like ordering the luxury edition of a new car that has all of the bells and whistles but with the right front tire being the little spare donut tire from the trunk. I know, I know. The payroll is so high. But really; why would you spend the huge amount of money on the rest of the line-up that has been spent with the clear goal of WINNING the Series (not just making it to the Series), and then put it all at risk by skimping in right field with no serious right handed bat?
It just seems odd to me. The fallback position is Russ Gload? I don’t know. It just seems so odd. So, out of whack. Doesn’t there HAVE to be something they aren’t telling us? I hope.
February 11th, 2011 on 4:59 pm
Hopefully Brown gets lots of playing time to start the year, either on the big club or in AAA. Mayberry can play the “sit on the bench and wait for your name to be called” role just fine.
February 13th, 2011 on 1:59 pm
I worry about Mayberry, just cause I can’t see any scenario where I’d rather see the Phillies give that roster spot to him than to a left-handed corner OF. Even if Brown makes the team, I’d still rather see him backed up by another lefty that can platoon with Brown. Unless you believe a whole, whole lot in Brandon Moss, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
February 13th, 2011 on 2:10 pm
Er, can platoon with Francisco.
February 14th, 2011 on 8:34 am
Knowing Ruben as I do right now, if Brown struggles and Francisco shows that he can’t do it every day, there will be a big trade near the deadline for another bat. I have no doubt in that whatsoever.