2009 bases-loaded walks
Posted by Andy on February 8, 2010
I did a quick batting event finder to find a list of all the bases loaded walks in 2009. I was surprised to see that there were 392 such walks, meaning that on average each team received 2 such free passes per season. Just as a check, in 2008 there were 372 bases loaded walks and in 2007 there were 351. Going back further there were 319 in 2006, 271 in 2005, and 329 in 2004. So at least as far as recent history goes, the bases loaded walk has become a lot more common.
A few of the interesting things we can learn from the 2009 results are that 8 of the bases loaded walks were game ending:
| Yr# | Gm# | Date | Batter | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2009-04-15 | James Loney | LAD | SFG | Brian Wilson | tied 4-4 | b 9 | 123 | 1 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Ramirez Scores; Ethier to 3B; Martin to 2B |
| 2 | 1 | 2009-05-01 | Russell Martin | LAD | SDP | Duaner Sanchez | tied 0-0 | b 9 | 123 | 2 | 10 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Hudson Scores; Ramirez to 3B; Kemp to 2B |
| 3 | 1 | 2009-05-02 | Shane Victorino | PHI | NYM | Sean Green | tied 5-5 | b10 | 123 | 2 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Feliz Scores; Stairs to 3B; Coste to 2B |
| 4 | 1 | 2009-05-12 | Carlos Beltran | NYM | ATL | Jeff Bennett | tied 3-3 | b10 | 123 | 2 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Reyes Scores; Cora to 3B; Castro to 2B |
| 5 | 1 | 2009-05-23 | Juan Pierre | LAD | LAA | Jose Arredondo | tied 4-4 | b10 | 123 | 0 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Kemp Scores; Blake to 3B; Castro to 2B |
| 6 | 1 | 2009-07-03 | Jake Fox | CHC | MIL | Mark DiFelice | tied 1-1 | b10 | 123 | 2 | 9 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Theriot Scores; Bradley to 3B; Soto to 2B |
| 7 | 1 | 2009-09-09 | Mark Reynolds | ARI | LAD | Ramon Troncoso | tied 3-3 | b 9 | 123 | 1 | 8 (3-2) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Oeltjen Scores/unER; Drew to 3B; Upton to 2B |
| 8 | 1 | 2009-09-12 | Nick Hundley | SDP | COL | Franklin Morales | tied 2-2 | b10 | 123 | 1 | 5 (3-1) | 1 | *ENDED GAME*:Walk; Venable Scores; Blanco to 3B; Gonzalez to 2B |
Wow, the Dodgers were all over this, winning 3 games and losing another by walks with the bags full. Also Juan Pierre must be one of the most unlikely guys to make a list like this, having drawn only 27 walks all of last season.
Among individual players, the 2009 leaders in bases loaded walks were:
Adam Dunn
| Cr# | Yr# | Gm# | Date | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 2009-04-08 | WSN | @FLA | Matt Lindstrom | down 3-6 | t 9 | 123 | 1 | 9 (3-2) | 1 | Walk; Johnson Scores/unER; Dukes to 3B; Zimmerman to 2B |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 2009-05-17 | WSN | PHI | Chan Ho Park | tied 3-3 | b 2 | 123 | 1 | 5 (3-1) | 1 | Walk; Guzman Scores; Johnson to 3B; Zimmerman to 2B |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 2009-06-27 | WSN | @BAL | Jeremy Guthrie | tied 0-0 | t 1 | 123 | 0 | 5 (3-1) | 1 | Walk; Harris Scores; Guzman to 3B; Zimmerman to 2B |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 2009-07-27 | WSN | @MIL | Jeff Suppan | down 1-2 | t 5 | 123 | 1 | 8 (3-2) | 1 | Walk; Morgan Scores; Guzman to 3B; Zimmerman to 2B |
| 5 | 5 | 1 | 2009-09-30 | WSN | NYM | Francisco Rodrig | down 2-4 | b 9 | 123 | 2 | 7 (3-2) | 1 | Walk; Gonzalez Scores; Padilla to 3B; Dukes to 2B |
and Geovany Soto
| Cr# | Yr# | Gm# | Date | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 2009-04-21 | CHC | CIN | Mike Lincoln | ahead 4-2 | b 5 | 123 | 2 | 4 (3-0) | 1 | Walk; Lee Scores/unER; Ramirez to 3B; Fontenot to 2B |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 2009-05-04 | CHC | SFG | Jonathan Sanchez | tied 0-0 | b 1 | 123 | 2 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | Walk; Soriano Scores; Bradley to 3B; Lee to 2B |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 2009-05-14 | CHC | SDP | Luis Perdomo | tied 1-1 | b 5 | 123 | 1 | 5 (3-1) | 1 | Walk; Theriot Scores; Fukudome to 3B; Hoffpauir to 2B |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 2009-05-30 | CHC | LAD | Jeff Weaver | ahead 4-0 | b 5 | 123 | 0 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | Walk; Bradley Scores; Lee to 3B; Johnson to 2B |
| 5 | 5 | 1 | 2009-06-21 | CHC | CLE | Jeremy Sowers | ahead 3-0 | b 5 | 123 | 1 | 6 (3-2) | 1 | Walk; Soriano Scores; Bradley to 3B; Lee to 2B |
each with 5. Interestingly, though, Dunn had 116 total walks as compared to just 50 for Soto.
I won't show all the games, but the pitchers to give up the most bases-loaded walks were Carlos Marmol with 6, and Daniel Cabrera, Manny Parra, and Jeff Suppan each with 5.
I was stunned to learn that 2009 featured not only a game with 4 different bases-loaded walks, but another game with 5!
The 4-walk job is this one, where 4 out of 5 consecutive batters walked with the bases loaded. Three of Suppan's such walks came in that game.
The 5-walk job is this one, a memorable game for Phillies fans. After the Braves drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 7th inning to go ahead 10-3 in the game, the Phillies roared back in the bottom of that inning with 8 runs, including 4 bases-loaded walks coming from 2 different pitchers. The Phils held on to win that game.
I didn't have to go back too far to find the last example of a game with 5 bases-loaded walks. In fact in happened in 2008, memorably, when Jack Hannahan himself walked twice with the bases loaded in the same game.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:44 am
If anyone is interested in a longer history of the frequency of bases laded walks, Andy covered them here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/566#comment-3845
Also, If you're interested in games with 6 bases loaded walks, I covered them here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/3480
February 8th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
In the second sentence, 392 divided by 30 does not equal 2. There's either an arithmetic error or I don't understand the sentence.
February 8th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
oh, I left out the critical phrase "PER SEASON"...thanks. Fixed now.
February 8th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
It still doesn't make sense.
February 8th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Yeah, I don't know what I'm thinking. It's more like 13 per team.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I suppose one could say that on average there were (a bit over) 2 bases-loaded walks a day. That's pretty surprising - if someone tells you a bases-loaded walk is something that doesn't happen every day, you can retort that in fact it happens (on average) twice a day (during the season, of course).
February 8th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
That is pretty shocking it happens more than twice a day. Last year it occurred in 7.7% of all bases loaded plate appearances. Walks occurred 8.7% of the time with bases empty, 11.7% of the time with men on, 7.7% of the time when there was men on first, first and second, or first and third (i.e. a force situation but an open base.) (if I calculated correctly)
So surprisingly, you are no less likely to draw a walk than in any other force situation. I guess the risk of forcing in that run is equaled by the risk of multiple runs scoring on a grooved pitch.
And unsurprisingly, one can infer from the above numbers that walks are most common with men on base but first base open (15.2% of PA, if I summed correctly).
February 8th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
If it's not obvious, the first sentence of my second paragraph should state "you are no less likely to draw a walk WITH THE BASES LOADED than in any other force situation"
February 8th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
JT you are stealing my thunder again. My next post is going to look at bases-loaded walk rates vs total number of walks and total number of bases loaded situations. I haven't finished the analysis yet but it looks like 2009 saw a pretty sizable spike in bases-loaded walks.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
JT doesn't steal other people's thunder, I do.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I'm obviously late to the party here, but I got confused by the math/wording too, at first. I figured the 13 per team per season as well, and then thought a good perspective from there was that that's roughly 2 BLW per team per month (or once every couple weeks or so) -- which does feel about right.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Yeah sorry about that--originally I noticed that the number of BLW was about double the number of games a team plays in a season, but that's actually a pretty irrelevant number....from there I just got confused. heh.