Jeff Samardzija has decided to stop walking batters

On April 28, Jeff Samardzija walked San Diego Padres outfielder Jabari Blash on four pitches. The first pitch looked like it caught the outside corner, then the San Francisco Giants right-hander threw two fastballs inside and one outside for ball four.

Samardzija didn’t walk another batter until May 25, when Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs took a 3-2 fastball a little up and out of the strike zone. Between walks, Samardzija struck out 47 batters. In fact, he may even have been pitching around Happ, or at least pitching him very carefully. There were two outs and a runner on second with Jason Heyward on deck; Happ was red hot at the time and Heyward wasn’t.

Since that walk to Happ, Samardzija has struck out 16 more batters, including 10 in his last start against the Milwaukee Brewers. He has had 59 strikeouts and one walk during his past seven starts, becoming the first pitcher to have 50-plus strikeouts and one or fewer walks in a seven-start span.

This idea isn’t new; it’s that Samardzija appears to be taking it to the absolute extremes, and it’s hard to argue with the results. Through that April 25 start, Samardzija had a 6.32 ERA with a 35-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has a 2.98 ERA in his past seven starts.

Who’s in Command Here?!?

So if pitchers who strike out a lot of batters while walking few tend to be very good, is the converse always true? Are pitchers with lousy K/BB ratios… lousy?

Well, yes.
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And no.

It depends.

(Jerry Crasnick bears no responsibility for any of this)

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-31-2017

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, January 31, 1917:

President John K. Tener of the National League said today that he will submit to the joint rules committee which meets [in New York] next month a recommendation to increase the width of the home plate from 17 to 18 inches and send a batsman to first base on three balls instead of four. Such a change in rules he declared, would bring about the desired increase in batting.

A four-ball walk is sacred in 2017, but was less than 30 years old when Tener designed this proposal. I’m happy they didn’t go through with it, but it wouldn’t have seemed too insane to the people back then.