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Thursday, October 13, 2011
Subverting the Intentional walks
As you know, I think 4-pitch walks (intentional or not) are against the spirit of the game. The idea of called balls was to act as an incentive for the pitcher to throw strikes at the batter. But, sometimes, the pitcher/manager believes that it is better to throw all those balls than to let the batter get a strike. Hence, against the spirit of the game.
Now, what if the batter makes life a bit tougher for the pitcher? The pitcher throws two intentional balls, and on the third one, the batter swings through. The count is now 2-1. Does the pitcher still walk the batter? Since an IBB is usually a very close to break-even decision, intentionally giving back .05 runs by the batter by swinging through on a pitch must cancel out that advantage. But, as we can figure, the defense is still going to throw an intentional ball 3.
Now what? At 3-1, the defense is going to throw ball 4. The batter can’t swing again, as he’d be giving up another .07 runs. But, suppose he does. Suppose he swings through at an intentional ball to put it at 3-2. Then what? What do you think the defense is going to do?
Similarly, what if the batter intentionally swings through on the first pitch, to put himself in a 0-1 hole. What do you think the defense is going to do?