Following up on the Imperfect Trifecta post, thought I’d give Rollins and Pierre a break and let some others share the limelight. The guy on the left was one of our faves back at the B-R Blog, a player with some quite unusual statistical characteristics, although not ones customarily associated with winning.

WARNING: This post is definitely written tongue in cheek. My apologies, in advance, if you are offended by the tone – not my intention, just having a bit of fun.

This post is about players who simply abhor walking. At any cost (and it’s often substantial). Instead, these purists insist on getting on base (or trying, at least) the difficult way, with their bats and their legs. Alas, it is an awfully hard chore for many of them.

So, let’s start with our current 2012 poster boys. These are the players with the longest current (through games of Apr 14th) “walkless” streaks.

In addition to these three, there are 186 other non-pitchers with one or more PAs who have yet to walk in 2012. But, they’ll have to go some to catch the players in the next list.

There have been 65 streaks of at least 100 AB without a walk to start a player’s season. Rob Picciolo has 3 such streaks, and Jeff Francoeur and Mariano Duncan each have two. Here are the longest of them.

So, Picciolo went from opening day to the end of September without a walk. Then he ruined it with not one, but two walks in the final 3 October games.

But a few players have managed to play an entire season (min. 100 PA) without drawing a walk. Drum roll, please!

Whew, that’s better. At least Rob didn’t blow it a second time.

We started with the list of the longest current walkless streaks. But, there have certainly been longer streaks in the past. Much longer.

Seems there’s a certain name that keeps popping up. But, some other interesting names as well. That’s Tony Pena the younger, with 20 career walks in 870 PA, even more of a free-swinger than Dad who had 25 walks in his first 3 seasosns (767 PA).

In addition to the two streaks above, Rob Picciolo had a 3rd long streak of 207 PA, notable in that it lasted almost 3 years, from July 5, 1982 to June 8, 1985.

Here’s another quirk of impatient hitters – these are the players with 2 or more seasons (min. 300 PA) with more GIDP than walks.

I wonder when was the last time that Mariano Duncan and Doug Flynn had their names next to a HOFer on one of our lists. Incidentally, the career WAR for the two HOFers here, and the guy at the top of the list who will be joining them, comes out to 163 and change – almost a 2 to 1 edge on the other 17 players who have collectively accumulated just 86 WAR.

But, you may say, those are just some quirky seasons. Have any non-pitchers had more GIDP than walks for an entire career (min. 1500 PA)? Well, actually yes.

Gee, there’s that name again! And, look at his strikeouts compared to the other two, in quite a bit less playing time. Which brings us to SO/BB ratios. Hey, it’s instructive for pitchers – why not for hitters too?

Here are the players with more than one season (min. 300 PAs) with 7 times as many strikeouts as walks. There are 38 others with one season like this.

And, lastly, here are the players with careers (min. 1500 PAs) with 7 times as many strikeouts as walks.

Or, ten times as many. But, who’s really counting.

Rob, we really do love you. 🙂  And, to prove it, here they are – the top 10 greatest games of your career. Look at all those crooked numbers. And, two almost perfect columns of zeros under BB and SO.