Intentional Walk Trivia

[Frayed Knot]

I know, it sounds like I'm really delving into 'Obscure-land' here (and, of course, I am), but this one kind of caught my eye for a couple of goofy reasons.
1) It involves several one-time Mets
2) there are two distinct types of guys who falls onto this list: good hitting/free-swingers, or weak hitters who bat eighth and get walked to get to the pitcher



What list, you say? ... Why the list of those who have at least 1/3 of their career walks as intentional walks, that's who.
There are thirteen of them since 1950 in case you were wondering.

Most of the list is too obscure for even the biggest geeks so I've already filled those in on the table below.
But the six guys I'm looking for here are either active (2 of them) or called Shea their home park for at least a piece of their career (4).
Note that there is no overlap between those two groups; the players are either active MLB players right now, OR they are one-time Mets.
Of the ex-Mets: one started his ML career as a Met but did not finish that way; one finished his ML career as a Met but did not start there; the other two neither started nor finished their careers in blue & orange but did pass through along the way. Three of the four ex-Mets had more career ABs as a Met than in any other uni.


So, with those clues given and the category of player plus their BB/IBB stats filled in, you just need to provide the names.

PLAYER	BB	IBB	Pct
Active Player	721	247	34.3%
Active Player	467	156	33.4%
Former NYM	375	144	38.4%
Manny Sanguillen	223	96	43.0%
Former NYM	191	64	33.5%
John Bateman	172	69	40.1%
Former NYM	151	58	38.4%
Fernando Gonzalez	58	20	34.5%
Former NYM	55	25	45.5%
Steve Lake	43	17	39.5%
Rod Booker	27	9	33.3%
Charles Thomas	26	9	34.6%
Freddie Benavides	20	7	35.0%

Edited July 26, 2011 by Guest

[Ceetar]

Rey Ordonez?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Dave Kingman in 3rd place

[Ceetar]

Preston Wilson?

[Frayed Knot]

Rey-Rey does indeed fill the spot of the one who started his career as a New York Met
Kingman is incorrect., as is Preston Wilson

PLAYER	BB	IBB	Pct
Active Player	721	247	34.3%
Active Player	467	156	33.4%
Former NYM	375	144	38.4%
Manny Sanguillen	223	96	43.0%
Rey Ordonez	191	64	33.5%
John Bateman	172	69	40.1%
Former NYM	151	58	38.4%
Fernando Gonzalez	58	20	34.5%
Former NYM	55	25	45.5%
Steve Lake	43	17	39.5%
Rod Booker	27	9	33.3%
Charles Thomas	26	9	34.6%
Freddie Benavides	20	7	35.0%

[Ceetar]

hmm...Pujols?

[Frayed Knot]

Nope. Prince Albert would jump onto the list in 2nd place [u:2x8mlutj]IF[/u:2x8mlutj] you drop the standard to 25% (behind Bonds of course), but he doesn't make this one.

[DocTee]

Frank Taveras?

[Ceetar]

Big Bad Vlad Guerrero?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Doug Flynn.

Tim Foli.

[Frayed Knot]

Vlad's number 1, Vlad's number 1
and Flynn is correct as well.

No go on Frank Tavares or Tim Foli

PLAYER	BB	IBB	Pct
Valdmir Guerrero	721	247	34.3%
Active Player	467	156	33.4%
Former NYM	375	144	38.4%
Manny Sanguillen	223	96	43.0%
Rey Ordonez	191	64	33.5%
John Bateman	172	69	40.1%
Doug Flynn	151	58	38.4%
Fernando Gonzalez	58	20	34.5%
Former NYM	55	25	45.5%
Steve Lake	43	17	39.5%
Rod Booker	27	9	33.3%
Charles Thomas	26	9	34.6%
Freddie Benavides	20	7	35.0%

OF the remaining ex-Mets, the higher one had a long career but only a brief one in Queens, the other a shorter overall career but spent more time as a Met.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

A. Soriano.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Mo Vaughn?

[TransMonk]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Mo Vaughn?

Oooo...I like that one.

[Frayed Knot]

Not bad guesses but both are NO.

I hadn't thought of Soriano - but he has surprising few IBBs (58 of 399), at least partially because he got almost none in the Bronx where he was usually surrounded by better bats in the lineup.

Big Mo fell just short of 20% for his career.



You wouldn't label any of the remaining guys as power hitters.

Edited July 26, 2011 by Guest

[Ceetar]

Ramon Castro? (I assume one of them is gonna be a feast or famine type backup catcher that usually batted 8th)

[Frayed Knot]

Not Ramon (or Nomar for that matter) but one of the remainder is/was a catcher.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Not Ramon (or Nomar for that matter) but one of the remainder is/was a catcher.

Todd Pratt?

[Chad ochoseis]

OF the remaining ex-Mets, the higher one had a long career but only a brief one in Queens

Larry Bowa?

[Theoldmole]

Willie Mays?

[Frayed Knot]

The remaining players are ...

PLAYER	BB	IBB	Pct
Valdmir Guerrero	721	247	34.3%
Ichiro Suzuki	467	156	33.4%
Garry Templeton	375	144	38.4%
Manny Sanguillen	223	96	43.0%
Rey Ordonez	191	64	33.5%
John Bateman	172	69	40.1%
Doug Flynn	151	58	38.4%
Fernando Gonzalez	58	20	34.5%
Mackey Sasser	55	25	45.5%
Steve Lake	43	17	39.5%
Rod Booker	27	9	33.3%
Charles Thomas	26	9	34.6%
Freddie Benavides	20	7	35.0%

[MFS62]

I would have thought Tony Pena, only because of Ralph Kiner's famous line "The toughest thing to do in baseball is walk Tony Pena". So, I figured a substantial percentage of his BBs were intentional.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Pe�a had a perfectly modest .049 walk rate, better than (for instance) Mookie Wilson (.040). The real walkless wonders were Tim F. Foli (.032) and Ozzie Guillen (.023).