Every wondered if pitchers have solved striking out the best players by just walking them too often? Some people do believe that by walking a good hitter often enough, they will start to lose their ability to hit well enough. This issue came up a few seasons ago when Bryce Harper was slumping due to a higher number of walks. Recently with the slump of Judge, I wondered if one of the most walked players in the MLB was going through that same thing. By using the number of walks and the number of strikeouts for the top players in each league that season, I tried to find the correlation of it all. This all leads to the question of: Does a higher number of walks lead to a high number of strikeouts? Walk Stars: 2016- Mike Trout (116 W, 137 SO) Paul Goldschmidt (110 W, 150 SO) 2015- Joey Votto (143 W, 135 SO) Jose Bautista (110 W, 106 SO) 2014- Carlos Santana (113 W, 124 SO) Matt Carpenter (95 W, 111 SO) 2013- Joey Votto (135 W, 138 SO) Mike Trout (110 W, 136 SO) 2012- Adam Dunn (105 W, 222 SO) Dan Uggla (94 W, 168 SO) 2011- Jose Bautista (132 W, 111 SO) Joey Votto (110 W, 129 SO) Actual Correlation: This is called small negative association, where the r is negative and below -0.3. The actual graph was listed at -0.246, so it fits the bill. This means that for every increase in one area, there is an decrease in the other and vice versa. So, for every walk there is actually a decrease in strikeouts. I guess we were wrong on this one. Simulated Correlation: The simulation sees how common it is for the small negative association to occur and it is actually very common. Therefore, we cannot conclude that an increased number of walks creates an increased number of strikeouts. But, since the pitchers like to do that to the best players, let them keep thinking that it works. Hope that this debunked some previous hunches about walks!
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AuthorHi, I'm Jenna and I'm a sports fan! I've been avidly watching sports since 2011 because I found that by watching sports, I would be able to communicate with my dad and brother better. Ever since I got into sports, I've been able to enjoy myself more when I go to sporting events with my family. Archives
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