Courtesy of a Keith Law tweet this morning:
Heyward's 67 BB are already the 6th-highest total ever for a player 20 or under. 16 more would put him 3rd behind Ted Williams and Mel Ott.
That's pretty amazing, and that's even with Heyward missing a month with injuries. We might all get frustrated with Jason for being a little too patient at times, but the man already knows the strike zone better than most hitters in the league.
Here's one other stat that I dug up:
It took Jason Heyward 111 games to reach 67 walks. It took Jeff Francoeur 363 games to reach 67 walks.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many differences between Jason Heyward and Jeff Francoeur.
0 recs | 36 comments
BB lead to a higher OBP...
and if that was so important, they why don’t they put it on the scoreboard?
/sarcasm
Great stats. Very telling…on both sides of the coin.
Old Braves' Fan - August 31, 2010
isn't jason 21 already?
atl192485 - August 31, 2010
Yup..
He’s past his prime now ;-)
Jman781 - August 31, 2010
He's on the down slope.
Bronn - August 31, 2010
Yeah, as of about 2 weeks ago.
DuPu - August 31, 2010
I'm thinking Law meant for a player who started the season at 20
Scott Coleman - August 31, 2010
Flawed stat
The best part, I was having this discussion with my best friend, about how this part didn’t arise until someone challenged his “discovery” by revealing that only 58 walks was before he turned 21.
Imagine if a phenom started the season at age 19 on April 3, and then turned 20 on April 4. Now despite the fact that he’ll be breaking all sorts of records for 19-year olds, he’ll have been 20 for 99.3% of the season.
royhobbs - August 31, 2010
Robin Yount had 80 walks before his 21st birthday
Of course that was in 400 games
DCP916 - August 31, 2010
In the past week Heyward has placed himself back into ROY discussions. If he can finish strong with an OPS of .900+, I think he’ll have it in the bag.
DuPu - August 31, 2010
Garcia’s work as a starter is getting tough to argue against.
I mean, he’s probably going to get Cy Young votes
DCP916 - August 31, 2010
bench him
MBL1 - August 31, 2010 via mobile
or move him down in the lineup
bbxxj - August 31, 2010
To cleanup.
Broccoman - August 31, 2010
You can't say enough good things...
About Heyward.
He’s been killing the ball lately. He went on a huge power drought and is still only 3 HRs off the rookie lead (and leads in OPS).
If he knows the strike zone this well at this age/stage in his career, what happens as he becomes a more experienced hitter? Scary…for all other teams.
Jman781 - August 31, 2010
This is absolutely remarkable.
Assuming he stays healthy, he is a near lock to get 16 more walks this season.
fandave - August 31, 2010
can we please stop mentioning frenchy????
it’s been a year and he’s not worth the screen resolution this blog post is printed on.
congrats j-hey. keep up the production, bring us that sweet home field advantage through the playoffs!
toppleprone - August 31, 2010
haha
poor frenchy… at least his wife is hot
HansonManCrush - August 31, 2010
How else are all of us gonna keep our old pink Francoeur jerseys relevant?
The Keith Lockhart Era - August 31, 2010
No.
justincredubil02 - August 31, 2010
guess i'll keep talking about Elvis Andrus...
toppleprone - August 31, 2010
Go for it. He’s a good player.
justincredubil02 - September 1, 2010
Those are some pretty good stats
Buster Posey ain’t got nothing on that! ;)
jayjaxon - August 31, 2010
And he's started killing rallies again
skymuse - August 31, 2010
Selfish of him.
Bronn - August 31, 2010
I hate seeing Prado’s RBI sad-face after Heyward clears everyone out.
bbxxj - August 31, 2010
lol
i see that too!
aceiii222 - August 31, 2010
who is the other in that ranking
1. Mel Ott: 113 BB (most in his career during 1 season)
2. Ted Williams: 107 BB (162 most in his career during 1 season, he did it twice)
3.
4.
5.
6. Jason Heyward: 67 BB, so far
joshant - August 31, 2010
* who are the others...
joshant - August 31, 2010
pretty good company
1. Mel Ott – 113 (1929)
2. Ted Williams – 107 (1939)
3. John McGraw – 101 (1893)
4. Al Kaline – 82 (1955)
5. Butch Wynegar – 79 (1976)
6. Mickey Mantle – 75 (1952)
7. Reddy Mack – 68 (1886)
8. Jason Heyward – 67 (2010)
9. Frank Robinson – 64 (1956)
10. Ken Griffey – 63 (1990)
DCP916 - August 31, 2010
why KLaw said that Heyward is 6th and needs 16 to be 3rd
He´s not incluiding McGraw and Mack because of the years they played?
joshant - August 31, 2010
I guess so
some people ignore stats from the 1800s, some don’t
DCP916 - August 31, 2010
even better list = OPS
1. Mel Ott – 1.084 (1929)
2. Ted Williams – 1.045 (1939)
3. Alex Rodriguez – 1.045 (1996)
4. Al Kaline – .967 (1955)
5. Jimmie Foxx - .964 (1928)
6. Frank Robinson – .936 (1956)
7. Mickey Mantle – .924 (1952)
8. Vada Pinson – .880 (1959)
9. Jason Heyward – .867 (2010)
To be fair, not a lot of 20 year olds play a full season in the bigs, but that’s what six or seven first ballot HOFers as the only guys ahead of him?
DCP916 - August 31, 2010
link?
joshant - August 31, 2010
just go to the Baseball Reference leaderboards
you can search everything by age
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_20_bat.shtml
DCP916 - August 31, 2010
thanks
kbertling353 - August 31, 2010
Also...
Out of 102 Ks going into last night, how many were of the 6+ pitch variety.
This team has gotten strong in the late innings because of chasing pitchers due to high counts early.
Guys who work ABs like Prads and Heyward at the top of the order are priceless.
I’ll take 130 Ks on the year if he works close to 100 walks and the bulk of the Ks allow the rest of our club to look at the pitchers arsenal, and aren’t of the 3 pitch variety with a lot of 0-2 counts.
flyers13 - September 1, 2010
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