The Royals "War On Walks"

Last week we looked at the home and road splits for Royals home runs going back to the birth of the franchise. Today, we turn our attention to walks.

Remember this quote from our walkless leader:

"We have the largest ballpark in terms of square footage of any ballpark in baseball," Moore says. "When pitchers come here, they have the mindset to use that park -- put the ball in play, throw strikes, attack the zone. There isn't the same fear factor of getting beat deep that you might have elsewhere."

"I think that plays a huge factor in that walk statistic."

Ahhh, yes. Square footage equals attack the zone equals balls in play. Blame The K.

Let's take a look.

Some facts that won't surprise you:

-- The Royals have drawn fewer walks than their opponents for 15 consecutive seasons.

-- Since 1998, the Royals opponents have drawn 1,765 more walks.

-- In the Dayton Moore Era, the Royals have drawn 732 fewer walks than the opposition. If we start his "era" in 2007, that averages to 105 more walks for the opposing team per season.

-- While according to Moore opposing pitchers have the mindset to throw strikes at The K because of the massive amount of square footage, I don't see that hypothesis holding water based on the raw numbers presented here. The Royals have generally walked more at home than on the road. It's a slim margin and probably not enough of a difference to draw any sort of concrete conclusions.

But that won't stop our GM.

-- It's largely the same story for the pitchers. Some years, they allow more walks at home. Other times, the split leans more walk heavy numbers on the road.

Going back to 2007, Royals pitchers have thrown 51 more walks on the road than at home. Is that because they're consciously throwing more strikes at home and letting their fielders do the work? That seems a bit of a stretch to me. But again, this is Dayton Moore. He's been known to float a few crazy ideas out there from time to time in search of justification of a breakdown of baseball fundamentals. And is an average of around eight walks a year a large enough difference to contend that the ballpark is a factor? I'm not buying.

Blame The K? No. Blame the GM for constructing a lineup composed of free swingers who make weak contact and habitually post low OBP rates? Yes.

And go back to the huge difference in walks between the Royals and their opponents. Somebody is walking at The K. It's just not the Royals.