Stat of the Day and Hall Of Fame IBBs

Much was made of Joe Girardi's decision to intentionally walk Evan Longoria on Saturday. Many called an intentional walk too large of an honor to give someone like Longoria in that spot in his second season (and injured no less). So I decided to see how much of an honor it really was. Here are the lowest totals of intentional walks to Hall of Famers (min 3000 PAs). I started the count with players who debuted in 1955 or later since that seems to be the first year that Baseball-Reference has IBB data for (it may be the first year it exists for as well) and here are the top 10 via Play Index (click on the link to see the rest of the bottom of the list)

 Cnt Player            **IBB** DbYr   PA  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+-------+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
   1 Luis Aparicio        22   1956 11230 1956 1973 22-39 2601 10230 1335 2677 394  92  83  791  736  742  27 161  76 184  506 136  .262  .311  .343  .654 *6        CHW-BAL-BOS
    2 Ryne Sandberg        59   1981  9282 1981 1997 21-37 2164  8385 1318 2386 403  76 282 1061  761 1260  34  31  71 139  344 107  .285  .344  .452  .796 *45/6D    PHI-CHC  
    3 Joe Morgan           76   1963 11329 1963 1984 19-40 2649  9277 1650 2517 449  96 268 1133 1865 1015  40  51  96 105  689 162  .271  .392  .427  .819 *4/758D   HOU-CIN-SFG-PHI-OAK
    4 Ozzie Smith          79   1978 10778 1978 1996 23-41 2573  9396 1257 2460 402  69  28  793 1072  589  33 214  63 167  580 148  .262  .337  .328  .665 *6        SDP-STL  
    5 Kirby Puckett        85   1984  7831 1984 1995 24-35 1783  7244 1071 2304 414  57 207 1085  450  965  56  23  58 188  134  76  .318  .360  .477  .837 *89/D7456 MIN      
    6 Robin Yount          95   1974 12249 1974 1993 18-37 2856 11008 1632 3142 583 126 251 1406  966 1350  48 104 123 217  271 105  .285  .342  .430  .772 *68D/73   MIL      
    7 Paul Molitor        100   1978 12160 1978 1998 21-41 2683 10835 1782 3319 605 114 234 1307 1094 1244  47  75 109 209  504 131  .306  .369  .448  .817 D543/6879 MIL-TOR-MIN
    8 Carlton Fisk        105   1969  9853 1969 1993 21-45 2499  8756 1276 2356 421  47 376 1330  849 1386 143  26  79 204  128  58  .269  .341  .457  .798 *2D/735   BOS-CHW  
    9 Gary Carter         106   1974  9019 1974 1992 20-38 2295  7971 1025 2092 371  31 324 1225  848  997  68  33  99 180   39  42  .262  .335  .439  .774 *29/375   MON-NYM-SFG-LAD-MON
   10 Cal Ripken          107   1981 12883 1981 2001 20-40 3001 11551 1647 3184 603  44 431 1695 1129 1305  66  10 127 350   36  39  .276  .340  .447  .787 *65/D     BAL      

A surprise name in the bottom 10: Robin Yount. He was a very good hitter who I can't remember having a lot of protection in those orders. At least not enough protection to warrant so few IBBs (though maybe Cecil Cooper was a better hitter than I give him credit for). And now for the top 10:

  Cnt Player            **IBB** DbYr   PA  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+-------+----+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
   1 Willie McCovey      260   1959  9686 1959 1980 21-42 2588  8197 1229 2211 353  46 521 1555 1345 1550  69   5  70 176   26  22  .270  .374  .515  .889 *37/9D    SFG-SDP-TOT-SFG
    2 George Brett        229   1973 11624 1973 1993 20-40 2707 10349 1583 3154 665 137 317 1595 1096  908  33  26 120 235  201  97  .305  .369  .487  .856 *5D3/796  KCR      
    3 Willie Stargell     227   1962  9026 1962 1982 22-42 2360  7927 1195 2232 423  55 475 1540  937 1936  78   9  75 143   17  16  .282  .360  .529  .889 *73/98    PIT      
    4 Eddie Murray        222   1977 12817 1977 1997 21-41 3026 11336 1627 3255 560  35 504 1917 1333 1516  18   2 128 316  110  43  .287  .359  .476  .835 *3D/57    BAL-LAD-NYM-CLE-TOT
    5 Frank Robinson      218   1956 11743 1956 1976 20-40 2808 10006 1829 2943 528  72 586 1812 1420 1532 198  17 102 269  204  77  .294  .389  .537  .926 97D38/5   CIN-BAL-LAD-CAL-TOT-CLE
    6 Tony Gwynn          203   1982 10232 1982 2001 22-41 2440  9288 1383 3141 543  85 135 1138  790  434  24  45  85 260  319 125  .338  .388  .459  .847 *98/7D    SDP      
    7 Mike Schmidt        201   1972 10062 1972 1989 22-39 2404  8352 1506 2234 408  59 548 1595 1507 1883  79  16 108 156  174  92  .267  .380  .527  .907 *53/64    PHI      
    8 Carl Yastrzemski    190   1961 13991 1961 1983 21-43 3308 11988 1816 3419 646  59 452 1844 1845 1393  40  13 105 323  168 116  .285  .379  .462  .841 *73D8/59  BOS      
    9 Billy Williams      182   1959 10519 1959 1976 21-38 2488  9350 1410 2711 434  88 426 1475 1045 1046  43   8  73 200   90  49  .290  .361  .492  .853 *79D/38   CHC-OAK  
   10 Wade Boggs          180   1982 10740 1982 1999 24-41 2440  9180 1513 3010 578  61 118 1014 1412  745  23  29  96 236   24  35  .328  .415  .443  .858 *5D/317   BOS-NYY-TBD

Again, this only covers a small amount of Hall of Famers, but I was surprised by these stats, especially with guys like Boggs and Gwynn beating out guys like Dave Winfield, Roberto Clemente, or, most surprising of all, Reggie Jackson (!).

And here is the data for the pitchers:

  Cnt Player            **IBB** DbYr   G  From  To   Ages  GS  CG SHO  GF  W   L   W-L%  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO    ERA  ERA+  HR   BF  HBP  BK  WP Teams         BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  OPS+  SH  SF  2B  3B GDP  SB   CS  Pk
+----+-----------------+-------+----+----+----+----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+---+------+----+----+----+----+----+------+----+---+-----+---+---+---+-----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+---+
   1 Jim Palmer           37   1965  558 1965 1984 19-38 521 211  53  15 268 152  .638   4 3948   3349 1395 1253 1311 2212   2.86  126 303 16112  38  11  85 BAL          .230  .294  .340  .634   82 133  84 512  88 273  265 164  15
    2 Sandy Koufax         48   1955  397 1955 1966 19-30 314 137  40  44 165  87  .655   9 2324.1 1754  806  713  817 2396   2.76  131 204  9497  18   7  87 BRO-LAD      .205  .275  .319  .594   69  83  32 270  47 104   73  38   5
    3 Catfish Hunter       57   1965  500 1965 1979 19-33 476 181  42   6 224 166  .574   1 3449.1 2958 1380 1248  954 2012   3.26  104 374 14032  49   7  49 KCA-OAK-NYY  .231  .285  .371  .656   92 132  93 525  70 183  202 132   8
    4 Nolan Ryan           78   1966  807 1966 1993 19-46 773 222  61  13 324 292  .526   3 5386   3923 2178 1911 2795 5714   3.19  111 321 22575 158  33 277 NYM-CAL-HOU-TEX  .204  .307  .298  .605   77 205 146 649 106 314  757 252  47
    5 Juan Marichal        82   1960  471 1960 1975 22-37 457 244  52  11 243 142  .631   2 3507.1 3153 1329 1126  709 2303   2.89  123 320 14236  40  20  51 SFG-BOS-LAD  .237  .277  .350  .627   80 125  65 396  70 207  176  82  43
    6 Bruce Sutter         83   1976  661 1976 1988 23-35   0   0   0 512  68  71  .489 300 1042.1  879  370  328  309  861   2.83  136  77  4251  13   8  37 CHC-STL-ATL  .230  .288  .340  .628   75  75  25 138  27  85   97  36   0
    7 Phil Niekro          86   1964  864 1964 1987 25-48 716 245  45  83 318 274  .537  29 5404.1 5044 2337 2012 1809 3342   3.35  115 482 22677 123  42 226 MLN-ATL-NYY-CLE-TOT  .247  .311  .366  .677   88 219 102 732 123 430  445 215  51
    8 Rich Gossage         90   1972 1002 1972 1994 20-42  37  16   0 681 124 107  .537 310 1809.1 1497  670  605  732 1502   3.01  126 119  7506  47   5  63 CHW-PIT-NYY-SDP-CHC-TOT-TEX-OAK-SEA  .228  .308  .330  .638   80 106  67 237  37 129  148  79   6
    9 Dennis Eckersley     91   1975 1071 1975 1998 20-43 361 100  20 577 197 171  .535 390 3285.2 3076 1382 1278  738 2401   3.50  116 347 13534  75  16  28 CLE-BOS-TOT-CHC-OAK-STL  .246  .290  .386  .676   84 109  93 571  71 146  380  78  15
   10 Jim Bunning          98   1955  591 1955 1971 23-39 519 151  40  39 224 184  .549  16 3760.1 3433 1527 1366 1000 2855   3.27  114 372 15618 160   8  47 DET-PHI-PIT-TOT  .242  .298  .373  .671   89 176  79 553  95 210  208 119   4
   11 Don Sutton          102   1966  774 1966 1988 21-43 756 178  58  12 324 256  .559   5 5282.1 4692 2104 1914 1343 3574   3.26  108 472 21631  82  21 112 LAD-HOU-TOT-MIL-CAL-LAD  .236  .286  .355  .641   85 208 127 728 107 292  432 143  14
   12 Rollie Fingers      109   1968  944 1968 1985 21-38  37   4   2 709 114 118  .491 341 1701.1 1474  615  549  492 1299   2.90  119 123  6942  39   7  40 OAK-SDP-MIL  .235  .292  .340  .632   84  82  66 219  33 136  117  47  14
   13 Tom Seaver          116   1967  656 1967 1986 22-41 647 231  61   6 311 205  .603   1 4782.2 3971 1674 1521 1390 3640   2.86  127 380 19369  76   8 126 NYM-TOT-CIN-NYM-CHW  .226  .283  .342  .625   79 187 111 675 120 315  409 164  14
   14 Fergie Jenkins      116   1965  664 1965 1983 22-40 594 267  49  37 284 226  .557   7 4500.2 4142 1853 1669  997 3192   3.34  115 484 18400  84  18  62 PHI-TOT-CHC-TEX-BOS-CHC  .243  .287  .383  .670   86 176 124 731  98 274  284 170   9
   15 Bob Gibson          118   1959  528 1959 1975 23-39 482 255  56  21 251 174  .591   6 3884.1 3279 1420 1258 1336 3117   2.91  127 257 16068 102  13 108 STL          .228  .297  .325  .622   77 171  94 457  83 292  196  88   0
   16 Don Drysdale        123   1956  518 1956 1969 19-32 465 167  49  34 209 166  .557   6 3432   3084 1292 1124  855 2486   2.95  121 280 14097 154  10  82 BRO-LAD      .239  .293  .352  .645   85 116  66 471  74 270   95  84  51
   17 Steve Carlton       150   1965  741 1965 1988 20-43 709 254  55  13 329 244  .574   2 5217.1 4672 2130 1864 1833 4136   3.22  115 414 21683  53  90 183 STL-PHI-TOT-MIN  .240  .306  .360  .666   89 235 122 807 137 405  314 225 144
   18 Gaylord Perry       164   1962  777 1962 1983 23-44 690 303  53  33 314 265  .542  11 5350.1 4938 2128 1846 1379 3534   3.11  117 399 21953 108   6 160 SFG-CLE-TOT-TEX-SDP-TOT-ATL-SEA  .245  .296  .354  .650   86 217 111 708 142 451  236 213  17

I wonder if there was much uproar when Bob Gibson or Steve Carlton was asked to throw four balls. Did the newspapers ask if the manager dissed them? Mariano Rivera has now issued 31 intentional passes so unless he greatly exceeds his pace of 2 every 162 games, I don't think he'll pass Palmer on this list. I think it's OK to ask him to throw four balls every once in a while...even if the move doesn't work out--and I also think it's OK for Mo to say no as well. I just think people need to stop making such a big deal out of it.