Walk This Way

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

Let’s talk stats a little. First, let’s be clear. I don’t want to hear that you hit .738 during your 18 game season, or that you hit eight home runs over the 250 foot left field fence. That really doesn’t mean much to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you produced for your team but I still can’t really deduce much from those numbers.

I know what you’re thinking. What? Why not? I got hits in nearly three of every four at bats, and eight home runs means I am a power hitter. Maybe, I say.

Once again, I will use myself as an example. Over my last two years of high school, I hit over .400 with around six or seven home runs in 20 or so games. Our home park was a band box, as were most parks we played in. I don’t have the exact numbers, but over my career at NC State I hit somewhere in the neighborhood of .175. I may have scared .200 briefly once or twice, but it didn’t blink.

Quick review: pretty good high schools stats, couldn’t hit my way out of a paper bag in college…but wait, wasn’t it supposed to be the other way?

There are a couple of exceptions though. First, I struck out a lot in high school. Like many so called “power” hitters, it kind of came with the territory. I didn’t take a lot of pitches, instead choosing to take viscous hacks at anything near the strike zone. Worked OK at that level, but not when the pitching got better at the college level. A look at my strike out to walk ratio would have probably told a little better story.

Ideally, a hitter will walk more than he strikes out. Keep in mind I said “ideally.” It doesn’t happen that much. In fact, a quick look at the 2008 Major League Baseball stats found that only 14 players (with more than 40 walks) did it. They are listed below in order of best BB to SO ratio.

BB/SO – Name – Bats, Team
104/54 – Albert Pujols – R, STL
84/50 – Joe Mauer – L, MIN
87/52 – Brian Giles – L, SD
44/28 – Doug Mientkiewicz – L, PIT
90/61 – Chipper Jones – S, ATL
50/35 – Luis Castillo – S, NYM
73/58 – Ryan Theriot – R, CHC
61/50 – Todd Helton – L, COL
44/38 – Carlos Ruiz – R, PHI
50/45 – Jason Kendall – R, MIL
46/42 – Craig Counsell – L, MIL
90/83 – Russell Martin – R, LAD
58/55 – Jimmy Rollins – S, PHI
97/93 – Mark Teixeira – S, ATL/LAA (combined stats)

That is truly impressive to be able to walk more than you strike out at the Major League level. I am particularly impressed that a left-handed hitter could do this. There are not many left-handed hitters that can effectively handle left-handed pitching, and during a 162 game season there is simply no way to avoid that. Some other left handed hitters that were close to a 1:1 ratio:

79/80 – JD Drew – L, BOS
41/43 – Luis Gonzalez – L, FL
70/74 – David Ortiz – L, BOS

Albert Pujols walked nearly 2 times for every time he struck out. Mauer, Giles and Mientkiewicz (all left-handed hitters) walked over 1.5 times for each strike out. Just to illustrate the point, I did a little research to try and find the worst performances…

23/139 – Kevin Kouzmanoff – R, SD (roughly 6 strikeouts per walk)
25/142 – Carlos Gomez – R, MIN (over 5.5 strikeouts per walk)

As for the “Greek god of walks” (of Moneyball fame), Kevin Youkilis walked 62 times, struck out 108. Maybe it’s time for a new nickname?

Another player I expected to be among the best in this statistic: Ichiro. He was close, but didn’t make the grade. Walked 51 times, struck out 65.

So, understand that certain stats can be more telling than others. For me, walk to strikeout ratio is tops while batting average is at the bottom. As with most things, it just takes a little reading between the lines.



Andy Ferguson is currently the Senior Director of Baseball Operations with the Baseball Factory. Ferguson joined the North Carolina State baseball team as a walk-on, and went on to solidify his role on a team that participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals. He later coached with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and then served as an Associate Scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres.

Work the Count - Take a Strike: Part 2

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

Last week I wrote about the two quotes mentioned in the title: "Work the Count" and "Take a Strike." I commented that I did not like these comments because they were misleading and incomplete. The fact is that the more balls and the less strikes that you have, the better off you are. AND the first pitch of an at-bat is in fact a VERY good pitch to hit. I based a lot of these facts off the statistics of Major League hitters last season and of other seasons that I have researched. I used the following chart which I showed last week and I will show again this week:

Batting average by count for all MLB players in 2007:

0-0 = .344

1-0 = .341

2-0 = .351

3-0 = .394

0-1 = .324

1-1 = .327

2-1 = .338

3-1 = .368

0-2 = .166

1-2 = .178

2-2 = .195

3-2 = .233

As you can see, when hitters have two strikes on them they are not very successful. When they swing in non two strike counts, they have much greater success. At the end of last weeks blog I left you with a question. What count do you think gives up the most homeruns? My guess would have been 2-0 or 3-1, traditionally great hitters counts. The answer: 0-0.

WOW! This answer blew me away, but it does make sense. For one thing, every hitter is guaranteed to have a 0-0 count every at-bat. But the other reason is that big league hitters have figured out something that pitching coaches all over the world don't want hitters to know.

ALL PITCHERS ARE TAUGHT TO GET AHEAD OF THE HITTER!

Sorry to yell but this is so obvious. No pitching coach teaches his pitcher to fall behind (look at the chart above for the obvious reason). So if as a hitter you know the pitcher is trying his best to throw a strike with the first pitch, why on earth would you want to take it? Chances are high that you will get a strike, and if you swing at strikes you have a much better chance to hit.

I once went to a baseball clinic and heard a very well respected Division I baseball coach speak on pitching. For 30 minutes he went on and on regarding the importance of getting ahead of the hitter and throwing strike one. After a 15 minute break he then spoke on hitting and preached the importance of working the count deep and taking pitches. To me this made no sense. Clearly this guy must have been a pitcher at heart. Why on earth would you tell hitters to take strikes if you are telling pitchers to throw strikes early? Am I missing something?

The truth of the matter is that teams who see a lot of balls and lay off bad pitches are very successful. The Yankees and Red Sox are great at this. Rarely do you see their hitters swing at bad pitches. As a result they do work the count, by taking balls, not strikes. Their hitters get themselves into advantage counts ( 1-0, 2-0, 3-1, 2-1) a lot. That is working the count the right way.

For fun I thought that I would rattle off a few more facts for you that you might find interesting.

Again these are based on the 2007 MLB season and were found at Baseball Reference:

• The best count for hitting home runs was 0-0 giving up 853 dingers.


• The next closest count was 1-0 giving up 615. (clearly swinging early helps)


• Worst count was 0-2 with only 173 round trippers.


• 0-0 count gave up the most doubles, triples, homers and RBI's.


• The next most productive count in all those categories was 1-1.


• When a pitcher got ahead of a hitter 0-1 they struck out 21,644 batters! (now you know why pitchers want to throw strike one and why I am so against taking a strike)


• In contrast when the pitcher fell behind 1-0 they were only able to K 10,545 batters.

Clearly you can see that swinging the bat in one of the first three pitches that you see can make you very productive as a hitter(if those pitches are strikes). The deeper the count goes the more the hitter tends to tense up and try to put the ball in play. The earlier in the count you swing the looser you are and the more you try to drive the ball. So use this insider information, understand what the pitcher is trying to do and step in the box ready to swing early in the count and watch your confidence, batting average and production rise.

Matt Schilling is the Senior Director of On-Field Instruction at Baseball Factory, Schilling handles all on-field elements, including one-on-one training.

Schilling graduated from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an All-Conference and All-State player while being voted the fourth best second baseman in the country by the Smith Award Group. Schilling went on to coach at Coastal for five years, helping them reach the top 25. He is also a former Associate Scout with the Atlanta Braves.