Free Swinger Update Pt I – Since we last checked in on our favorite free swingers on August 21, our number 1 guy – Jeff Francoeur – has been busy on the base paths drawing 4 bases on balls (1 intentional), including a season high of 6 for the month of August (only the one intentional).  For the year, Francoeur now has 16 walks (5 intentional) in 587 plate appearances and 559 at bats.  His 16^th walk of the season on Monday had the even bigger effect of dropping him behind Angel Berroa for the lowest PA:BB ratio in the majors.

 

The top 5 in each league among qualified hitters:

 

AL Highest PA:BB                                             NL Highest PA:BB

1. Berroa – KC – 37.00                                         1. Francoeur – Atl – 36.69

2. Lopez – Sea – 32.95                                         2. Cedeno – ChC – 32.27

3. Betancourt – Sea – 32.73                                3. Barmes – Col – 27.94

4. Polanco – Det – 31.00                                      4. Hillenbrand – SF – 26.67

5. Johjima – Sea – 27.75                                       5. Rowand – Phi – 24.72

 

Free Swinger Update Pt II – If you lower the bar to just 150 plate appearances, Francoeur’s rate – while still on pace to rank among the top free swingers of all-time – is good for only 4^th lowest in the NL and 11^th lowest in the majors.  Vance Wilson, while backing up Ivan Rodriguez (6^th in the AL at 0.0369), has accepted just one walk in exactly 150 plate appearances this year for the lowest rate in the majors.  In the NL, Miguel Olivo scores the lowest ratio in the NL with just 7 BB in 386 PA.

 

Here are the top – or bottom depending on perspective – five in each league with a minimum of 150 PA:

 

AL Highest PA:BB min 150 PA                      NL Highest PA:BB min 150 PA

1. Wilson – Det – 150.00                                     1. Olivo – Fla – 55.14

2. Redmond – Min – 77.50                  2. Gonzalez – Col – 39.50

3. Quinlan – LAA – 71.00                                   3. Estrada – Ari – 36.82

4. Perez – TB – 44.60                                            4. Francoeur – Atl – 36.69

5. Perez – Det – 40.00                                           5. Cedeno – ChC – 32.27   

 

Free Swinger Update Pt III – However, we learned two weeks ago that all walks are not created equally when it comes to free swingers.  Estrada – as was pointed out by the folks at azsnakepit.com – went 279 at bats between unintentional walks earlier this year.  That led to some more digging, which led us to Eliezer Alfonzo, whose first three free passes of his ML career were all intentional.  In fact, since drawing an unintentional walk on July 16 – 89 AB into his big league career – he has since gone 142 more AB without drawing a second one and he has now drawn a total of 8 walks for the season, 7 of which were intentional.  Subtracting those intentional walks gives Alfonzo an adjusted rate of 0.0040, blowing away Wilson’s mark of 0.0067.  So with that in mind, here are the top in Adjusted PA:BB ratio’s with a minimum of 150 PA.

 

AL Adjusted Highest PA:BB                            NL Adjusted Highest PA:BB

1. Wilson – Det – 150.00                                     1. Alfonzo – SF – 250.00

2. Quinlan – LAA – 106.50                 2. Estrada – Ari – 81.00

3. Redmond – Min – 77.50                  3. Olivo – Fla – 77.20

4. Perez – Det – 56.00                                           4. Francoeur – Atl – 53.36

5. Costa – KC – 47.75                                          5. Hall – LAD – 47.00

 

Free Swingers Update Pt IV – Among all hitters who have not drawn a walk, Laynce Nix has the most plate appearances.  He has come to the plate 70 times now this season (67 AB) and has not been walked once.  Anderson Hernandez – in the running earlier in the year until he was sent down to the minors – was recalled September 1 and has upped his total to 45 plate appearances (45 AB) without a base on balls. 

 

Free Swingers Update Pt V – With Francoeur still on pace to register over 700 plate appearances this season, he is also still on pace to record one of the most free swinging seasons of all time.  With a walk every 36.69 PA, he is on pace to register the second highest mark of any batter with that many PA behind only the 45.69 ratio that Woody Jensen put up in 1936 for the Pirates, and ahead of the 32.22 ratio that Alfonso Soriano registered for the Yankees in 2002.  But how would Berroa rate if he got to 600 PA but not 700?  How about if he only made it to 500?  How about those who only get to 400?  300?  Well DN&N decided to do some more digging and came up with a few more all-time free swinging seasons. 

 

Highest PA:BB ratio – 600 PA – 699 PA

1. Buck Weaver – 1919 ChW – 11 BB – 620 PA – 56.36

2. Henry Myers – 1922 Bkl – 13 BB – 658 PA – 50.62

3. Lave Cross – 1904 PhA – 13 BB – 639 PA – 49.15

4. Hal Chase – 1906 NYH – 13 BB – 637 PA – 49.00

5. Deivi Cruz – 2000 Det – 13 BB – 615 PA – 47.31

 

Highest PA:BB ratio – 500 PA – 599 PA

1. Art Fletcher – 1915 NYG – 6 BB – 599 PA – 99.83

2. George Stovall – 1909 Cle – 6 BB – 576 PA – 96.00

3. Candy LaChance – 1901 Cle – 7 BB – 564 PA – 80.57

4. Shano Collins – 1922 Bos – 7 BB – 504 PA – 72.00

5. Virgil Stallcup – 1949 Cin – 9 BB – 589 PA – 65.44

 

Highest PA:BB ratio – 400 PA – 499 PA

1. Whitey Alperman – 1909 Bkl – 2 BB – 442 PA – 221.00

2. Ossee Schreckengost – 1905 PhA – 3 BB – 429 PA – 143.00

3. Alfredo Griffin – 1984 Tor – 4 BB – 441 PA – 110.25

4. Hal Lanier – 1964 SFG – 5 BB – 401 PA – 80.20

5. Whitey Alperman – 1906 Bkl – 6 BB – 487 PA – 81.17

 

Highest PA:BB ratio – 300 PA – 399 PA

1. Rob Picciolo – 1979 Oak – 3 BB – 363 PA – 121.00

2. John Warner – 1901 NYG – 3 BB – 305 PA – 101.67

3. Bill Killefer – 1913 Phi – 4 BB – 375 PA – 93.75

4. Art Hoelskoetter – 1906 StL – 4 BB – 330 PA – 82.50

5. Boss Schmidt – 1907 Det – 5 BB – 371 PA – 74.20

 

No No-No – MLB’s no-hitter drought continues after Ramon Ortiz missed – by just three outs – becoming the first pitcher since Randy Johnson on May 18, 2004 to throw a hitless game when Aaron Miles broke up the bid with a 9^th inning single.  It was sweet revenge for Miles, who was the last out of a minor league no-hitter thrown by Ortiz in 1997.  There have now been 468 game days since Johnson’s gem, 70 short of the major league record of 538 game days set between August 8, 1931 and September 21, 1934.

 

The Chase is Wild

 

As we head into the stretch run, we’ll begin to take a daily look at the Wild Card chase.  On Monday in the AL, Minnesota used 6 1/3 strong innings from Boof Bonser to beat Tampa Bay 2-1 while Carlos Pena hit a game winning home run for the Red Sox to help down the White Sox 3-2 and give the Twins a half game lead in the AL Wild Card chase.  Boston sits 6 games behind the front running Twins who trail the division leading Tigers by 5 games.

 

Meanwhile in the NL, the WC leading Padres got a dramatic 3-run homer from rookie Josh Barfield in the bottom of the 9^th off of Brian Fuentes to cap a come from behind win over Colorado.  The win kept San Diego 1 ½ games up on the second place Phillies and 2 games ahead of the unbelievable Marlins. 

 

The Phillies, held to just one hit over 5 innings by Roger Clemens, kept it close and saw Chase Utley win it with a walk-off in the tenth, his 25^th HR of the season.  Ryan Howard hit HR number 53 in the win and now has a 14-game hitting streak during which he is batting .458 (22-for-48) with 10 HR and 23 RBI.  The Astros are now 4 ½ games behind the Padres.

 

The Marlins kept pace with home runs from Dan Uggla (22) and Joe Borchard (8) to win their fourth straight, 8-5 over Arizona.  Florida is now an improbable 69-68 (.504) overall after beginning the season 11-31 (.262).  The loss for the fading D’Backs was their 6^th in a row. 

 

The Giants held ground as well, beating the sinking Reds 5-4 in 10 innings.  Shea Hillenbrand’s 10^th inning HR gave the Giants the lead and Mike Stanton got the final three outs for the save.  Hillenbrand has 15 hits in his last 42 at bats (.357) with 5 HR and 13 RBI.  Barry Bonds has 17 hits in his last 36 at bats (.472) with 6 HR and 12 RBI since August 20.  He has now homered in three straight games after hitting a game tying shot in the 8^th, his 730^th career HR. 

 

For Cincinnati, it was their 9^th loss in their last 10 games, and in the process, they lost CF Ken Griffey, who dislocated his second toe attempting to grab Bonds’ HR which landed in the first row.  Griffey is listed as day-to-day, as are the Reds season; they are now 3 ½ games behind San Diego.

 

The Braves, a 5-0 winner over the Mets behind Chuck James’ 1-hitter, trail the Padres by 5 games in the Wild Card race.

 

Quick Hits

 

Vladimir Guerrero went 0-for-4 in the Angels win over Texas on Monday to snap his hitting streak at 20 games.  The streak tied him for the 9^th longest hitting streak in Angels history.  He also holds the top two hitting streaks in Expos/Nationals history with a 31 game streak in 1999 and a 26-gamer in 2000.  It was the 8^th streak of 20 games or longer in the majors this season, tying him with Ichiro and Chipper Jones for the sixth longest. 

 

On his third try after two consecutive losses, Jared Weaver finally got his 10^th win of the year by tossing 7 shutout innings over the Rangers to lower his season ERA to 2.16.

 

In four starts since allowing 11 runs (10 earned) in just 1/3 of an inning against Cleveland, Luke Hudson has a 3.00 ERA (9 ER, 27 IP).  He allowed just 1 run over 7 innings on Monday before watching the Royals bullpen self-destruct, allowing 10 runs in the 7^th inning of the Yankees’ 12-5 come from behind win. 

 

Since returning from the DL on August 8, Robinson Cano is batting .368 (42-for-114) while slugging .623 for a 1.009 OPS.  He was 4-for-5 with a HR and 3 RBI in the win over KC on Monday.

 

Derek Jeter has hit safely in 15 straight games, going 25-for-61 (.410). 

 

Kaz Matsui is batting .425 (17-for-40) since his return from the minors.

 

Rich Aurilia has 23 hits in his last 57 at bats (.404) with 4 HR and 9 RBI to give him 21 HR on the year and raise his season average to .297.

 

On Deck – With September here and the race for the season’s top awards heating up, DN&N will over the next three weeks preview the top candidates in both leagues for the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP awards.  Beginning tomorrow, we’ll give you a look at the top Rookies in the league this year.  Next week we’ll present the top contenders for the Cy Young and the following week (Sept 19), we’ll give you the top challengers for the most coveted MVP award.  Then finally on September 26, we’ll go out on a limb and give you our picks.    

Questions or comments for Richard? Richard Van Zandt is a staff writer for Baseball Evolution who lives in San Francisco, California. You can reach him at richard@baseballevolution.com.