roothog66 posted:FoxDad posted:Baseballcomesthird posted:Very curious to see what you all have to say. Is a walk as good/equivalent to a hit?
From a defensive point a view, son's Legion coach was of the opinion walks tend to come back to bite you. He absolutely hated it when a pitcher gave up a walk. He'd rather the ball be put in play - at least the defense got a chance to make the out if the batter didn't strike out.
Yeah, but they don't hurt you like a hit. I'd rather my pitcher have a higher walk rate and low OBA than the opposite. With a guy on second, it takes three walks to bring him in, but only one hit.
Yes, a hit has the potential due to more damage - especially if it is a double, triple or HR. At least the batter earned it and didn't get a free pass from the pitcher. The batter that drew a walk wouldn't necessarily need 3 more walks to score. If he can steal 2nd base, now he's in scoring position where a single could score him. It's hard to score from 1st on a single.
It just seemed when my son was playing legion, that a walk resulted in a series of plays where multiple runs ended up scoring and many times when we looked back at the inning, getting the batter out instead of a free pass would have made a significant difference.