About Geoff Expertise Huge baseball trivia lover! I will attempt to answer anything you can think of when it comes to major league baseball. I have a large reference library of all things baseball. Try to stump me!
It seems like every year I hear on a sportscast or read in the sports section of a manager being questioned about how he plans on defending Mr. So and So. (You know, the player who can hit home runs in his sleep or stick his bat out and have it bloop in for a hit etc). Occasionally the reply will be to walk him because even with the bases loaded it'd be only one run versus the possibility of 4. Given that scenario say that on opening day Mr. So and So hits the first pitch out of the park for a home run. After that, all the managers of the opposing teams decide that the intentional walk is the way to go and they proceed to walk him 4 times a game. 162 games times 4 "plate appearances" equal 648 (plus 1 hit, a homer, remember) would give him a 1.000 batting average and a 4.000 slugging average. True or False? Possible or Not? Would the Commissioner intervene or would Mr. So and So be added to the top of every record book? Thanks for your views on this.
Answer Hi Frank,
Nice to hear from you.
To qualify to win a batting title or slugging title or on-base percentage title, you need to have 3.1 plate appearances per game played by your team that year. In 2004, Barry Bonds won the NL batting title despite having only 373 at-bats. Add in all of his walks (232), sacrifice flies, and hit-by-pitch, and he's well over 600 plate appearances.
In your example, that hitter would win the batting title by batting 1.000, the on-base percentage title (also 1.000), and the slugging percentage title (4.000). He'd also set records for most walks in a season, and for most consecutive games reaching base by hit or walk. He'd have a good chance of scoring 200-300 runs in the season too!
Is this possible? I suppose so, but I think 2004 Barry Bonds is the closest we'll ever come to seeing this happen. Bonds got 120 intentional walks that year breaking his own record of 68 set in 2002. (Willie McCovey had held the record with 45 intentional walks in 1969.)
Would MLB intervene if someone started getting walked 4 times a game day after day? I think they would - quietly. For a player to be considered that good, letting the fans watch him hit 100+ home runs a year would be better for baseball than seeing him walk 648 times a year. By "better" I mean more entertaining to the fans. Baseball tries to get its share of our entertainment dollar so I can't imagine MLB allowing its greatest player to walk when he can put on a much better show by hitting.
