Comments on: You guys will fit right in

By: Drew

Drew — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:57:48 +0000

Makes one look longingly back to that coarse wonderful old ’93 team. They’d wear pitchers out going deep into counts. Kind of makes one miss a recent but departed Phillies rightfielder. Kind of.

I respectfully have to take a bit of issue with crediting Amaro with this season of success. He was handed a World Series champion built by another man, was provided another man’s open checkbook, and on his own has accomplished less every year since taking over. There is a pretty good chance he will continue his downward arc in 2013. So yes, the baseball has been good. But it has also been in measurable decline. The decline is Amaro’s. the success belongs to others.

In my humble opinion.

By: egrissom

egrissom — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:12:37 +0000

I definitely don’t know. My initial reaction is to discount coaching, discount ballpark and just look at the players the Phillies have chosen to use in recent years and their histories of drawing walks. My guess is that the answer will prove to be simply that the Phillies gave a ton of PA to players who whose history showed they weren’t going to walk much and they didn’t walk much. See, for example, Pierre, Galvis, Frandsen, Polanco, Martinez, Wilson Valdez, etc.

I think the more interesting question is why the Phillies used players that don’t walk. Because they came cheap and the team had to? Because they thought they produced enough value defensively that they could still contribute enough overall to bring value to the team? The top hitters on the team have just gotten worse at drawing walks in combination with playing less? Something else?

I hadn’t even thought of home/away splits relative to walking. I will check it out in more depth, but in 2012, the Phils walked in about 7.6% of their PA at home and 7.1% away. 2011 they walked in about 9.12% at home and 8.04% on the road. I’m under the impression that just about all teams walk more at home than on the road, but I’m not sure by how much or even if that’s true. If it is, I don’t understand why.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:09:23 +0000

The interesting combination of 2007 being the cutoff year and the Phils competing with the Rockies for worst walk rate got me thinking:
How much of this could be a result of hitting strategy for a particular ballpark? Would a hitting coach instruct players to be more liberal in chasing borderline pitches when the fences are shorter?

Do the home/away BB splits tell you anything?