This Bat Was Made For Swinging (And Missing)
Sometimes it's fun to see who the wild hackers are in the league - those who would rather wail away than let ball four pass them by. They're at the plate to use that bat, even if it mean knocking the stuffing out of the air above home plate. Cincinnati's Dave Ross leads the league in whiff production. If his strike outs were hits, he'd be batting .393.
| Player | Team | AB | BB | SO | PA | PA/SO | PA/BB | SO/BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Ross | CIN | 61 | 3 | 24 | 64 | 2.67 | 21.33 | 8.00 |
| BJ Upton | TB | 77 | 7 | 28 | 84 | 3.00 | 12.00 | 4.00 |
| Alex Gordon | KC | 84 | 11 | 31 | 95 | 3.06 | 8.64 | 2.82 |
| Craig Monroe | DET | 87 | 6 | 29 | 93 | 3.21 | 15.50 | 4.83 |
| Adam Dunn | CIN | 92 | 15 | 33 | 107 | 3.24 | 7.13 | 2.20 |
And I Would Walk 500 Miles
It's also fun to see who is patient at the plate, has "good eyes", or is somebody the opposition would rather pitch around. Jim Thome leads this category. He walks every third time up.
| Player | Team | AB | BB | SO | PA | PA/SO | PA/BB | SO/BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Thome | CWS | 50 | 25 | 15 | 75 | 5.00 | 3.00 | 0.60 |
| Barry Bonds | SF | 63 | 23 | 10 | 86 | 8.60 | 3.74 | 0.43 |
| Ryan Howard | PHI | 79 | 26 | 29 | 105 | 3.62 | 4.04 | 1.12 |
| Pat Burrell | PHI | 75 | 22 | 20 | 97 | 4.85 | 4.41 | 0.91 |
| Todd Helton | COL | 91 | 25 | 6 | 116 | 19.33 | 4.64 | 0.24 |
Once Is Enough
While I was at it, I wanted to see which players were in base-on-balls "slumps". I arbitrarily set a one-walk minimum for the sake of calculation. I'm not a fan of dividing by zero (seeing #DIV/0! makes me cringe). The interesting player in this table is Yuniesky Betancourt. He rarely walks and he rarely strikes out. So, if you need a guy to put the ball in play, Yuni is your man.
| Player | Team | AB | BB | SO | PA | PA/SO | PA/BB | SO/BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivan Rodriguez | DET | 96 | 1 | 19 | 97 | 5.11 | 97.00 | 19.00 |
| Garret Anderson | LAA | 95 | 1 | 13 | 96 | 7.38 | 96.00 | 13.00 |
| Shea Hillenbrand | LAA | 80 | 1 | 5 | 81 | 16.20 | 81.00 | 5.00 |
| Kevin Mench | MIL | 71 | 1 | 5 | 72 | 14.40 | 72.00 | 5.00 |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | SEA | 70 | 1 | 4 | 71 | 17.75 | 71.00 | 4.00 |
I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Finally, there are guys who seem incapable of missing the ball. They get out just as often as any other ballplayer, but they aren't as likely to get themselves out. While it's pretty incredible that David Eckstein has only struck out once in 93 trips to the plate this season, it's even more incredible that Placido Polanco, in his career, has only struck out 275 times in 4,047 plate appearances (or just 7% of the time).
| Player | Team | AB | BB | SO | PA | PA/SO | PA/BB | SO/BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Eckstein | STL | 87 | 6 | 1 | 93 | 93.00 | 15.50 | 0.17 |
| Placido Polanco | DET | 109 | 6 | 3 | 115 | 38.33 | 19.17 | 0.50 |
| Adam Kennedy | STL | 73 | 5 | 4 | 78 | 19.50 | 15.60 | 0.80 |
| Todd Helton | COL | 91 | 25 | 6 | 116 | 19.33 | 4.64 | 0.24 |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | SEA | 70 | 1 | 4 | 71 | 17.75 | 71.00 | 4.00 |
