Today's Fun Fact

by Jeff Sullivan on Sep 21, 2009 4:05 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Stats

Through 628 trips to the plate so far in 2009, Ichiro has earned 31 walks, of which 15 were intentional, giving him a shot at drawing as many or more intentional walks than unintentional ones. Via Baseball Reference's Play Index, here's a table of all the players ever to have pulled that off. Minimum 500 PAs, 8th-place hitters in the NL excluded.

Player	IBB	BB	Year
Guerrero	25	50	2006
Bonds	120	232	2004
Pierzynski	12	24	2003
Galarraga	12	24	1993
Dawson	21	42	1990
Garvey	10	20	1982
Cromartie	19	38	1979
Sanguillen	11	21	1972
Sanguillen	13	19	1971
Sanguillen	9	17	1970
Oliver	11	21	1969
Clemente	27	51	1968
Helms	6	12	1968

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I can't believe Galarraga hit .370/.403/.602 that year

by Jeff Sullivan on Sep 21, 2009 4:06 PM PDT reply actions

Coors Field was hailed as a better park for a pitcher in my 1995 Bill James annual

by Poochie on Sep 21, 2009 10:11 PM PDT up reply actions

I cannot believe Ichiro leads the league in iBB

by Matthew on Sep 21, 2009 4:13 PM PDT reply actions

One of them came in the second inning!

by Jeff Sullivan on Sep 21, 2009 4:15 PM PDT up reply actions

When was that?

My Mariners blog - SodoMojo Twitter Feed, Fuck the fucking Angels!

by gregrabble on Sep 21, 2009 5:21 PM PDT up reply actions

Yesterday

by drblacknwhite on Sep 21, 2009 5:33 PM PDT up reply actions

When I saw 'Helms' my first thought was, "Who in the hell intentionally walked Wes Helms?!?"

Then I looked at the year. Tommy Helms. That’s better.

by SethGrandpa on Sep 21, 2009 4:15 PM PDT reply actions

I don't think of players getting IBB'd back in the day.

Interesting..

by JonBBT on Sep 21, 2009 4:48 PM PDT reply actions

They were only first recorded in, what, 1955?

by Jeff Sullivan on Sep 21, 2009 5:18 PM PDT up reply actions

Cromartie?

FUCK THE ANGELS! FUCK THE ANGELS! FUCK THE ANGELS!

by Goose on Sep 21, 2009 4:48 PM PDT reply actions

Fun Fact!

Yuniesky Betancourt has been intentionally walked 3 times in his entire career. All 3 came in 2007. They came against Casey Fossum, Justin Hampson, Will Ohman. Two were against national league teams (Hampton, Ohman). Only Casey Fossum walked Betancourt on purpose. At the time, he was batting 7th in front of Jose Lopez and it came in the top of the 6th after a Johjima double.

...and now I'm here

by CapSea on Sep 21, 2009 9:51 PM PDT reply actions

Barry Bonds drew 232 walks in a season

by Poochie on Sep 21, 2009 10:12 PM PDT reply actions

Hmmm....

Confucious say Man with 4 balls can’t walk. Clearly, Bonds’ were so shriveled he proved this axiom correct…

This signature space for rent.

by PositivePaul on Sep 21, 2009 10:20 PM PDT up reply actions

Didn't help his running any.

by JonBBT on Sep 21, 2009 10:27 PM PDT up reply actions

Confucius never said that

by Poochie on Sep 21, 2009 11:22 PM PDT up reply actions

That's fucking ridiculous.

by Teej on Sep 21, 2009 10:51 PM PDT up reply actions

.609 OBP!

I hope you die. I hope we BOTH die.

by BRKLN M'S on Sep 22, 2009 7:12 AM PDT up reply actions

More than twice Yuni's career OBP!

I will smash your face into a jelly.

by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Sep 22, 2009 8:39 AM PDT up reply actions

In fact, Bonds' 2004 season was worth 5.5x Yuni's entire career.

12.3 WAR vs. 2.2 career WAR

I will smash your face into a jelly.

by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Sep 22, 2009 8:42 AM PDT up reply actions

Give Yuni another couple of years and Bonds will be worth NaNx his career

by Graham MacAree on Sep 22, 2009 9:41 AM PDT up reply actions 2 recs

I'm just stunned that pitchers intentionally walked Manny Sanguillen.

by msb on Sep 21, 2009 11:06 PM PDT reply actions

Those teams had some black holes on offense, and Sanguillen wasn't one of them.

The shortstops back then were ~ .600-.640 OPS types.

by marc w on Sep 22, 2009 9:18 AM PDT up reply actions

I know ....

Manny had such an enthusiatic swing, it just made me laugh

by msb on Sep 22, 2009 9:30 AM PDT up reply actions

I think there would be quite a few guys in Sanguillen's situation - guys w/o a lot of pop who hit before 70s shortstops.

We’ll call it the Oyler corollary to Jeff’s 8th place NL hitter exclusion.
Looks like Pilots 7th hitters racked up a decent number of IBBs in 1969 despite being almost Oyleresque at the plate.
John Donaldson had 5 in a half season of PAs despite OPSing less than .600. Ron Clark had 2 in less than 200 PAs despite an OPS under .500. Sadly, both guys drew a decent number of unintentional walks (though how unintentional were they REALLY?), so don’t appear on this list.

by marc w on Sep 22, 2009 10:03 AM PDT up reply actions