The Braves Are WALKING To The NL East Title
By Eric Graff
Jun 28, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder B.J. Upton (2) walks against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the eighth inning at Turner Field. The Braves defeated the Diamondbacks 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
The base on balls. The Braves team as a whole are very good at it. But why do we want walks when we should be hitting homers? Let me explain this like you are a 5-year-old. Walks are good because they get people on base. Walks are also good because they aren’t an out. The more people who are on base and the less outs you make, the better your chances are to score. See how that works?
The Braves have the fifth-best walk rate in all of baseball and second in the NL behind the Reds, mostly because of the insane walk rates of Votto(16.9%) and Choo(14.4%). As far as the Braves NL East foes….they aren’t faring so well when it comes to walking.
- Braves (5th) – 9.0%
- Mets (11th) – 8.2%
- Nationals (18th) – 7.5%
- Marlins (26th) – 6.7%
- Phillies (28th) – 6.6%
The Braves are also very balanced as a team when it comes to walking. Here are the number of players for the top 10 teams in walk rate with over 200 PA and a walk rate over 10%:
- A’s – 5
- Red Sox – 6
- Indians – 4
- Reds – 3
- BRAVES – 6
- Rays – 4
- Tigers – 4
- Twins – 2
- Mariners – 3
- Blue Jays – 3
What this tells us is that the Braves lineup, as a whole, is very patient. Jordan Schafer would actually be the 7th man for the Braves with a walk rate over 10% but he is about 50 PA short of my criteria.
What is crazy awesome about all these walks is when the Braves actually start hitting well as a team they will really start piling up the runs. The only unfortunate thing is that the Brave with the lowest walk rate is Andrelton Simmons, and he leads off and gets the most plate appearances, on the team for some reason.