Take Your Base (One Sixty-Two: Day Eight)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Eight: Daric Barton, Oakland Athletics

I couldn’t stand playing Wiffle Ball with Billy. The kid lived across the street from me, and he was often willing to join in on the summer games we played in my driveway. But the problem with Billy was that he always looked for a walk. In Wiffle Ball.

I mean, come on. You’re nine years old, you’re outside in the sun, and you need some exercise. Shouldn’t Wiffle Ball be all about hitting? Maybe it was that way for you and me, but not for Billy. He watched the looping curveball as it started over the plate, and rested the thin yellow bat on his shoulder while the white ball bounced off the rear bumper of our Pontiac Bonneville, just to the left of the lawn chair – hence, just outside the strike zone.

Ball four.

In the 1980s, when very few teams took note of a player’s on-base percentage, walks were not valued quite so much. Batting average was the key statistic for a hitter. In this here 21st century, however, hitters are now raised to approach hitting just like ol’ Billy did. The goal is simply to get on base, any way you can. A walk is, in some ways, even better than a hit, as it forces up the pitch count and gets you closer to a team’s often vulnerable bullpen.

No team has embodied this approach to hitting better than the Oakland A’s, who have used General Manager Billy Beane’s focus on computer-generated statistics to revolutionize the way teams prepare their ballclubs. A’s prospects are taught from the outset to be patient at the plate, and are rewarded for that patience – ultimately, with a trip to the big club.

This year, the most patient of the A’s has been a first baseman named Daric Barton, who has been up to the plate 97 times, yet has walked 20 of those times. So while Barton has earned a hit 30 percent of the time he’s been up to bat, he’s landed on base a whopping 44 percent of the time. More men on base equal more opportunities to score. So this 24-year-old, who hit only .226 in his only full season in the majors, is currently the poster boy for Oakland A’s baseball.

He’ll continue to be so for as long as he can wait, patiently, for the pitcher to throw him something inside that little strike zone. If it can’t hit the lawn chair, Daric, just leave it alone. Whether it’s my neighbor Billy telling you that, or your boss Billy, the advice is solid. Take your base.