Walks Aren't Everything, But...

What the Angels do not do is walk very much. The addition of the former Yankee Bobby Abreu has made their lineup more patient, willing to take more pitches instead of looking to hack. But the Angels still drew fewer walks than the average team, while the Yankees led the majors in that category.

The Angels (.285) and the Yankees (.283) ranked first and second in the majors in batting average, meaning they tend to make contact. That helps the Angels use their speed and put the game in motion, taking chances on the bases.

It's too bad the Royals can't even fall back on the sometimes good excuse (used properly) that they make solid contact and don't strike out often. Then again, the Royals were 18th and the Angels 21st in offensive strikeouts (higher meaning worse, of course). But the Mets had the fewest at 928 and that didn't take them far. So *the answer* isn't walks. That leaves us with OBP. The Yanks came in at #1 (.362) and the Angels #3 (.350). KC? #27 at .318. So walks aren't everything, but.... - TL

over 2 years ago timlacy 8 comments 0 recs |

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The Angels walked at almost exactly the league average

Last year, the average MLB team walked 554 times, or at the rate of 8.9%. The Angels walked 547 times, or at the rate of 8.7%.

How does walking at essentially the league average rate become “do[es] not walk very much”?

by Gopherballs on Oct 12, 2009 3:01 PM EDT reply actions

ehhh....average would qualify as not very much or not very little

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by billybeingbilly on Oct 12, 2009 3:32 PM EDT up reply actions

The context of the article is...

…in relation to the Yankees, who do walk a lot (and have a high OBP). – TL

by timlacy on Oct 12, 2009 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I read the article

But he still says the Angels “drew fewer walks than the average team” right after saying that the Angels do not walk very much, which implies that the Angels are bad at drawing walks when in fact drew only 7 walks less than the average team.

by Gopherballs on Oct 12, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

did they not draw fewer walks than the average team?

I really dont get this. The angels dont walk a ton, they walk less than the average team, they walk a shit ton less than the yankees. Isnt that the entirety of this article?

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by billybeingbilly on Oct 12, 2009 7:48 PM EDT up reply actions

yes, in the same way that saying that the Angels posted an above average ERA

when the Angels’ ERA was 4.45 and the AL average was 4.46, especially if it follows the sentence that the Angels are very good at preventing runs.

by Gopherballs on Oct 12, 2009 8:16 PM EDT up reply actions

That OBP is heavily influenced by BA

but the Angels were 17th in MLB in walks last year, which is pretty much league average. Looking at MLB’s sortable team stats page, I think there are a few things we can conclude:

The Yankees and Angels had a lot more hits than the Royals, they have better players.
The Yankees and Angels had a lot more SBs than the Royals, they have better players.
The Angels scored almost 200 more runs than the Royals and the Yankees scored more than 200 runs more than the Royals. Those runs did not come from homers, except possibly in the Yankees case (Angels had 30 more than the Royals, Yankees had exactly 100 more).
Looks like the Yankees win with a combination of good hitting and lots of power.
Looks like the Angels win because of something sort of intangible from the stats, but let’s think about it. They score almost as much as the Yankees while having a SLG much lower than the Yankees (37 points). And the same difference (36 points)between the Royals and Angels is there as well, but the Angels scored 200 more runs than the Royals, so why didn’t the Yankees score 200 runs more than the Angels? The Yankees do not run the bases as well as the Angels, same goes for the Royals.
The Total Bases stat is also very telling. The Angels had 240 more than the Royals, and scored 197 more runs. While the Yanks had 231 more bases than the Angels. Obviously 1 base does not equal 1 run or even close. The difference in homers isn’t that great (just 30), SBs they had 60 more than KC, but that maybe explains 30% of the difference (I made that number up!). Base running for the Angels seems to be the key. The Royals were really good at hitting people base to base. There’s nothing quite like getting 3 singles in a row and not being able to score a run.
Long story short, the Yankees while a good team do not need to run the bases well as they hit lots of homers to score runs. The difference between the Royals and them can be completely explained away by BA, OBP, and 100 more homers. The Angels don’t have similar stats to the Yankees but produce at a relatively close level with 70 less homers. Has to be mostly in very efficient baserunning.

by AxDxMx on Oct 13, 2009 11:17 AM EDT reply actions