Thursday, April 19, 2018

If he got TWO bases, would Barry Bonds have been intentionally walked with the bases loaded?

In 2017 Aaron Judge had the most walks in the AL:

RkPlayerBBYearAgeTmLgGPAABRH2B3BHRRBIIBBSOHBPSHSFGDPSBCSBAOBPSLGOPSPos
1Joey Votto134201733CINNL1627075591061793413610020838061651.320.454.5781.032*3
2Aaron Judge127201725NYYAL15567854212815424352114112085041594.284.422.6271.049*9D/H
3Matt Carpenter109201731STLNL1456224979112031223694125925521.241.384.451.835*354/HD
4Edwin Encarnacion104201734CLEAL157669554961432013810751335051820.258.377.504.881*D3/H

While some may like seeing Joey Votto walk, who wants to see Aaron Judge walk? Judge hit 52 home runs in 2017. That's been the case ever since Babe Ruth busted out his home run stick and belted 54 homers in 1920.

RkPlayerBBYearAgeTmLgGPAABRH2B3BHRRBIIBBSOHBPSHSFGDPSBCSBAOBPSLGOPSPos
1Bryce Harper24201825WSNNL188759181710818212004020.288.471.7121.183*9
2Freddie Freeman18201828ATLNL167959121760212313200110.288.468.492.960*3
3Matthew Joyce16201833OAKAL18725310135024110111101.245.423.453.875*7/HD89
4Matt Carpenter15201832STLNL16715491030210121002000.185.352.352.704*5/43
5Todd Frazier15201832NYMNL167355101650213017102110.291.438.491.929*5
6Cesar Hernandez15201828PHINL16745913162025118000241.271.419.407.826*4/HD
7Rhys Hoskins15201825PHINL167052121770213116201231.327.486.5771.063*7/3HD
8Aaron Judge15201826NYYAL167559152030411118100521.339.480.5931.073*9/8D
9Trea Turner15201825WSNNL1887728173013116000180.236.368.319.687*6

Bryce Harper leads in walks and homers so far in 2018. Who wants to see Bryce Harper walk?

Change the damn walk rule!

Here's a simple suggestion, since my radical ones from a decade ago went nowhere. Designate one batter in the lineup to get two bases per walk. That would make teams think twice about nibbling and trying to get Judge or Harper to chase bad pitches.

All base runners would advance accordingly. If Judge walked with the bases loaded, TWO runs would be forced in, not one.

In 1998, his first of three seasons managing Arizona, Buck Showalter had Barry Bonds intentionally walked with the bases loaded. And this was well before Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001. Bonds may not even have been using PEDs yet. McGwire hit 70 homers and Sosa hit 66 homers in 1998 but this was still before June. Bonds hit 37 homers in 1998.

Thursday, May 28, 1998
Start Time: 7:08 p.m. Local
Attendance: 12,066
Venue: 3Com Park
Game Duration: 3:26
Night Game, on grass
Diamondbacks 8, Giants 7

Bottom of the 7th, Giants Batting, Behind 2-7, Diamondbacks' Brian Anderson facing 7-8-9
Chris Jones (R) off Brian Anderson (L) Home Run (Fly Ball) leading off

Bottom of the 8th, Giants Batting, Behind 5-7
PH Marvin Benard on first
Gregg Olson (R) replaces Amaury Telemaco (R) pitching
Barry Bonds (L) pinch hits for Chris Jones (LF) batting 7th
Bonds Walk; Benard to 2B


Bottom of the 9th, Giants Batting, Behind 5-8, Diamondbacks' Gregg Olson facing 1-2-3
SO
BB
2B
BB
ground out; RUN
BB; bases loaded; Diamondbacks 8, Giants 6


Barry Bonds against Gregg Olson - Intentional Walk; Kent Scores; Hayes to 3B; Snow to 2B;
Diamondbacks 8, Giants 7

Brent Mayne against Gregg Olson - Lineout: RF (Deep CF-RF)

2 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 3 LOB. Diamondbacks 8, Giants 7.
Game over.

________________________________

OK, Bonds didn't start so my rule might not have applied BUT, would Showalter have walked Bonds intentionally if Bonds got TWO bases? It would have tied the score, rather than making it 8-7.

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