roothog66 posted:You just quoted a statistic that shows the results as practically dead even and then say the odds are "a lot better." Of course, I'm also not talking about the average. I'm talking about comparing say, a pitcher who walks 6/9ip but only gives up a .115 OBA vs. a guy who only walks 1/9ip, but allows opponents to hit .380 against him. I'll take the first guy. But, again, not talking about average players either way. I think , for the average, your stat shows that there's little significant difference in the long run, except for (probably) the affect on pitch counts.
How can you say the results are practically dead even? 100% of the batters who walk or get hit, reach base while the percentage of batters who put the ball in play is one Hell of a lot less.
Just out of curiosity I took a look at the number of pitches there were per walk and per hit. 13,175 pitches in 2,843 walks for 5.3 pitches per walk. 16,036 pitches for 5,181 hits for 3.1 pitches per hit. Sure seems as though it’s a lot less taxing on pitchers to allow the same number of hits as walks.