09/15/2004 - Brewers (Wes O.) vs. Giants (Tomko & Bonds)

[DHonks]

Joe, I think the point is that when not walked intentionally, he gets out more than half the time. And Bonds is good, but to say he gets out only 5.7 times out of 10 means that he has a career .430 average, unless you are counting 10 plate appearances (I'm looking at AB's). Still, when you pitch to him, he gets out somewhere around 59% of his plate appearances. When you are afraid of him or intentionally walk him, you are inflating his numbers to the point that they will further scare others down the road

[JoeHova]

unless you are counting 10 plate appearances

 

 

I was, sorry for the confusion.

 

 

When you are afraid of him or intentionally walk him, you are inflating his numbers to the point that they will further scare others down the road

 

 

that's probably true, but he is slugging over .800. Him and Babe Ruth are the only guys to ever do that.

[endaround]

People keep saying that Bonds only gets his BA when pitchers "pitch" to him. That is incredibly bunk. Bonds has one of the best strike zone judgemnets ever seen, so even if you are "pitching" to him you can still walk him. Unless you think pitching to him means fastballs down the middle of the plate, in which case you are clearly wrong to think he'll get out 60% of the time.

 

King Kaufman in Salon just ran numbers taking away 75 of Bonds IBB so he'd have close to what Thome has, and treated those 75 ABS like all of Bonds other ABs. Bonds then ends up with "only" a .542 OBP.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Remember, in late April, Bonds had more home runs at that point in the season than he did swings that didn't connect. It's hard to "pitch" to a guy who has such an insanely accurate eye and swing.