The World's Worst Sports Blog

Quick thoughts on the Mets August 11, 2012

• So, I’m a little late to the party on this one, but way back on August 4, Mike Baxter tied the National League record for most walks in a 9-inning game with 5. 5 was, incidentally, his total number of plate appearances. That was unusual in part because prior to August 4, Baxter had made 82 plate appearances (mostly as a pinch hitter) and walked in 8 of them, for a rate of .0972 walks per plate appearance. That makes the probability of having five consecutive plate appearances all end in walks about .0975⁵, or a little under 9 in every million five-PA strings. In total this year he’s walked 52 times in 342 plate appearances, for a rate of about .15 walks every appearance. The Pride of Whitestone seems to be normalizing upward.
• R.A. Dickey pitched a complete game gem Thursday afternoon. Batters facing Dickey have a .277 batting average on balls in play, compared with a league average of .299. Dickey may be benefiting from a slightly lower-than-expected BABIP, but he’s helping himself avoid the unpredictability of balls in play with a league-leading 166 strikeouts (tied with Stephen Strasburg). He’s leading the league in WHIP with just 1.004 walks plus hits per inning pitched. It’s a shame he’s on this year’s squad, or he’d be receiving serious consideration for the Cy Young. As it stands, Strasburg has a much better case on player value grounds.
• Just as a side note, A.J. Ellis of the Dodgers has had two games where  he walked in every plate appearance – both of them were 4-plate-appearance games. His stats are otherwise pretty similar to Baxter’s. He just likes to bunch them up a bit more.