23 Responses to “Teams With Zero BB In A Game 23+ Times In A Season Since 1919”

1. Neil L. Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 12:38 pm

   Only two winning percentages in the matching games for teams on the first list? The 12-11 Jays in 1982 and the 15-14 Robins (feels funny saying that) in 1921.

   I'm a little amazed at what a negative thing it is, in terms of game outcome, to not issue any walks. I guess not giving the opposition's best hitters any pitches to hit is a good strategy, even at risk of walking them.

   It's interesting to sort the first list by strikeouts and see the results. It puts the 1998 Pirates near the top with close to 8 strikeouts per game, although they didn't win much.

   Thanks for the blog, Steve.

2. Johnny Twisto Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 12:49 pm

   Neil, I think you've misread the table (unless I'm misreading you). The first table is games in which the team didn't *draw* any walks. So teams tend to lose games when their hitters never walk.

3. Kahuna Tuna Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 1:17 pm

   The winning percentage of the top 300 teams since 1919 in games where their pitchers issued zero walks is .716. Two Cardinals teams from this list, the 1968 and 1982 teams, won all their zero-walk games (24 and 16 games, respectively). Most zero-walk games by a team is 36 (20 wins, 16 losses), by the fourth-place 1924 Reds.

4. Neil L. Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

   @2
   Johnny, thank you. I'll cover my red face. Gee, wish it was possible to delete a dumb post! 🙁

   Well, it didn't make sense, on any level, that so many of the first-list teams were losers in those games. It helps to actually read every word of the post. Sigh!

5. Johnny Twisto Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 1:22 pm

   The Yankees have pitched 41.1 IP since allowing a walk (and have won all those games).

6. Johnny Twisto Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 1:26 pm

   The longest consecutive game streak without issuing a walk (since 1919) is six, by the '02 Yankees. They went 65.2 IP over 8 games without issuing a walk.

7. Neil L. Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 1:56 pm

   @5
   Johnny, Dave, noted a similar thing earlier this morning in a slightly different way in the previous blog.

   http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/13644#comment-133395

   However, you have looked up the extra walkless IP from the Yankees game previous to the White Sox series. Who are they starting tonight against the Red Sox?

8. Whiz Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 2:39 pm

   I recently commented on the longest IP streak without a walk by an individual pitcher:

   http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/13581#comment-133245

9. Johnny Twisto Says:
   August 5th, 2011 at 2:59 pm

   Neil, the Sox are preparing for their Colonoscopy.

10. John Autin Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    I'm surprised that there no recent Mariners seasons on the no-walks list. They've finished last or next-to-last in walks drawn for the past 5 seasons, including a ridiculous 389 in 2007 -- 300 behind Boston, and 147 less than the AL average. Three of their everyday hitters drew 20 walks or less.

11. Ebessan Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    Oh, '61 Tigers.

    Only one of those guys is either HoF or HoM. Crazy.

12. Ebessan Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    Has any other team ever had three batters with 7.5 WAR?

13. Richard Chester Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    @12

    The Yankees did in 1929 with Ruth, Gehrig and Lazzeri.

14. John Autin Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    @12, Ebessan -- And the 2004 Cardinals with Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen.

    P.S. What's "HoM"?

15. Ebessan Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    Hall of Merit.

16. Neil L. Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    Anyone taking bets on the length, time-wise, of the Yankees'-Sox game tonight? I know both teams have "patient" hitters, but their games become Mike-Hargrove-like one hundred fold.

    How many times will both teams' starters step off the rubber after coming set and how many times will the batters be granted time out by the HP umpire? Those two events seem to feed off each other, leading to interminable at-bats. Is it because each team doesn't want to make a mistake against the other?

17. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 5:54 pm

    Has any other team ever had three batters with 7.5 WAR?

    The Yankees did in 1929 with Ruth, Gehrig and Lazzeri.

    Yes, and so did two other teams: the 1961 Tigers with Cash, Kaline, and Colavito, and the 2004 Cardinals, with Pujols, Rolen and Edmonds.

    No team has ever had three batters with 7.5 oWAR, although Gehrig in '29 just missed, with 7.4.

18. mccombe35 Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    @5

    Yeah.. Just heard today how the White Sox batters didn't draw a single BB in the 4 game series. That has to be pretty rare.....

19. mccombe35 Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    White Sox walk-less streak broken with 2 BBs in the 1st inning against the Twins tonight.

20. John Autin Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    @19 ... but the Yankees' no-walks-issued streak is still going after 4 IP in Boston.

21. John Autin Says:
    August 5th, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    I guess I jinxed it -- Ellsbury walked with 2 out in the 5th.

22. Neil L. Says:
    August 6th, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    OK, OK, so #16 was an off-topic post and deserved to be ignored. And this thread is probably dead anyway.

    I did not see the Friday-night Red Sox-Yankees' game and so am just looking at the BBRef statistics on it.

    The 9-inning game took 3:26, 206 minutes, to play but yielded only 5 runs. There were a total of 69 plate appearances, working out to an average of 2.99 min per plate appearance ..... hmmm, doesn't seem that bad.

    There were a total of 8 pitching changes, three by the Sox, five by the Yanks.

    There were three mid-inning pitching changes, two by the Yankees, one by the Sox. Didn't bother to check mound visits that didn't result in changes.

    Length (time) of game is not a searchable piece of data in the PI, so what to compare this game to? Let's take another game where the same number of total runs is scored, how about the Cardinals beating the Marlins by the same score as the Yanks' and Sox, with the road team winning?

    This 9-inning game took 3:06 or 186 minutes to complete with a total of 77 plate appearances, including an ROE. A total of six pitching changes, with three being mid-inning. The average is 2.42 minutes per PA, only a 19.1% reduction per batter.

    Not a significant difference?

    All right, I need a life and have nothing better to do right now. 🙂

23. Neil L. Says:
    August 6th, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    @22
    Kind of dumb not to mention this. The game picked for comparison was also from Friday night. 3-2 road victory for the Cardinals