We love walks. We love baseball players that take walks rather than swinging at bad pitches. And better yet, we like teams that draw bases on balls because they make pitchers work hard to get outs.
Over the last few years, the Cleveland Guardians are heeding our advice (not really, we aren’t that egotistic). In 2023, they ranked 13th in the American League in drawing walks, moved up one spot in ’24, and last season were 9th.
Entering play on Wednesday, Steven Vogt’s crew sits second in the junior circuit in getting on base via the walk. That’s a good thing. A real good thing.
People ask us from time to time why we like walks, after all it is not a reason people go to baseball games. But if a player walks, he’s not making an out and each team gets 27 outs in every nine inning baseball contest. Let us say that again. They aren’t making outs.
Last season, the Guardians had no one who walked more than they fanned. The closest were Jose Ramirez who walked 66 times with 74 strikeouts and Steven Kwan (55 walks, 60 Ks). Kwan did accomplish the feat in ’24 when he whiffed 51 times, drawing 53 walks.
So far this year, and we know there is a lot of season still to be played, Cleveland has four batters in this situation: Ramirez (31 BB, 28 Ks), Kwan (22 BB, 21 K), rookie Chase DeLauter (20 BB, 16 K) and another rookie, Travis Bazzana (12 BB, 8 K). In addition, Brayan Rocchio (14 BB/14 K) is even.
In addition, newcomer Rhys Hoskins who is hitting just .185, but has drawn 24 walks, making his on base percentage a very respectable .353.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t translated to runs yet because the Guards still rank 12th in the AL in that category. But perhaps we need to be patient with that.
Last season in MLB, of the top five teams in runs scored, three of them were in the top five in walks, and all of them with in the top half of the sport in drawing bases on balls. In 2024, the same was true, meaning three of the top five in scoring also were in the top five in walks, and only Baltimore wasn’t in the top half of baseball in walking.
In 2023, two of the highest scoring teams (Dodgers and Rangers) also ranked in the top five in walks, and again, four of the five were in the top half of MLB.
So, more often than not, if you draw a lot of walks, you will score a lot of runs.
Why haven’t the Guardians converted more of the walks into runs yet this year? Our theory is once they have runners in scoring position, they revert to their old impatient ways, swinging early in the count and often trying to hit pitches that aren’t strikes.
We get it. They are trying to do too much. They need to keep the same approach, get good pitches to hit, and as David Fry did the other night, take a bases loaded walk. It gets a run across and keeps the opposing pitcher in trouble.
Usually in sports, aggressiveness is rewarded. In baseball, sometimes patience is a good way to go. And we think it will pay off in the long run.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 