With Intent

Designating a walk as an "intentional walk" is a somewhat odd aspect of baseball statistics. Most baseball statistics (setting aside fielding errors) are simply statements of facts. A single is an occurrence when the batter hits safely and makes it to first base; a walk is when the batter is awarded first base on four balls, etc. The intentional walk, however, requires a subjective determination by the official scorer of what was in the pitcher's mind -- whether or not he "intentionally" walked the better. There can certainly be gradations of "intentionality" that are not reflected in the simple statistical assignment of a walk as either "intentional" or not. A pitcher will sometimes pitch around a batter, intentionally avoiding giving the batter any pitch close to the strike zone or remotely hittable, without going through the traditional rigmarole of a standard "intentional" walk (catcher stands up, signals for a pitch way outside the strike zone, etc.). Intentional walk stats thus have to be taken with some grain of salt.

Nevertheless, the major leagues do record a sub-category of walks known as intentional walks, and there are some interesting patterns to be found there. Jose Reyes had 13 intentional walks (IBBs) in 2007 -- that's a very high number for a leadoff batter, and led the majors this past season for IBBs by a leadoff batter. By my calculations, Reyes is only the ninth NL player in the past 50 years to manage 13 or more IBBs in a season from the leadoff position in the batting order (note however that some of the other eight players -- such as Pete Rose and Lou Brock --did it multiple times in their careers). The frequency of Jose's IBBs in 2007 resulted in the Mets receiving more IBBs at the leadoff spot in the batting order than at any other spot in the order, an odd result indeed.

Generally speaking, in the NL, the 8th batter in the order gets the most IBBs, with the 5th place and cleanup hitters close behind. Over the past ten seasons, 8th spot batters have received about 24% of all IBBs in the National League, cleanup hitters about 21% of the IBBs and 5th place hitters about 18%. Leadoff hitters in the NL over the past ten seasons have only about 4% of the all the IBBs in the NL, ahead only of ninth place hitters at about 3% (these are all essentially all pinch hitters of course) and 1% for second spot hitters. Clearly a second spot hitter is rarely walked intentionally, given that the heart of the order is generally coming up immediately thereafter.

Although overall during the past ten seasons, the 8th spot has gotten the highest proportion of IBBs in the National League, in 2007 NL cleanup batters outdid 8th spot hitters in IBBs, with the cleanup guys taking about 26% of the IBBs and the 8th spot guys taking about 21.5%.

IBBs for pitchers are about as rare as ivory-billed woodpeckers. Brooks Kieschnick was pitching in a game in 2004 and received an IBB while at bat in that game -- but Kieschnick played more games in his career as a major league outfielder than as a pitcher. The last man before that to receive an intentional walk while in the game as a pitcher was Jim Kaat, all the way back in 1970, pitching for the Twins against the Brewers. Kaat was walked intentionally with one out and men on second and third, with the score tied in the top of the 11th inning. The Brewers were obviously trying to set up the possibilities of a double play or a force at home. It didn't work: Cesar Tovar singled and then Harmon Killebrew homered Kaat and Tovar in, and the Twins scored six runs in the inning.