I did a little work using Baseball Reference and Excel to see how much time this new rule is really going to save on a nightly (or daily) basis. Here is a chart of how often each team was intentionally walked, shown next to how many games they played in 2016:
Team | I.B.B | Games Played | Walks/Game |
ATL | 60 | 161 | 0.37 |
WSN | 49 | 162 | 0.30 |
CHC | 45 | 162 | 0.28 |
ARI | 43 | 162 | 0.27 |
NYM | 43 | 162 | 0.27 |
SFG | 43 | 162 | 0.27 |
MIA | 40 | 161 | 0.25 |
PIT | 39 | 162 | 0.24 |
CIN | 37 | 162 | 0.23 |
COL | 35 | 162 | 0.22 |
BOS | 34 | 162 | 0.21 |
MIL | 34 | 162 | 0.21 |
PHI | 33 | 162 | 0.20 |
DET | 32 | 161 | 0.20 |
HOU | 31 | 162 | 0.19 |
LAD | 31 | 162 | 0.19 |
LgA | 31 | 162 | 0.19 |
SDP | 30 | 162 | 0.19 |
SEA | 29 | 162 | 0.18 |
STL | 28 | 162 | 0.17 |
MIN | 24 | 162 | 0.15 |
KCR | 23 | 162 | 0.14 |
TEX | 23 | 162 | 0.14 |
LAA | 21 | 162 | 0.13 |
TBR | 20 | 162 | 0.12 |
BAL | 19 | 162 | 0.12 |
NYY | 19 | 162 | 0.12 |
OAK | 19 | 162 | 0.12 |
CHW | 16 | 162 | 0.10 |
CLE | 16 | 161 | 0.10 |
TOR | 16 | 162 | 0.10 |
Total | 932 | 4856 | 0.19 |
Here is a more magnified view of the bottom line:
Overall in 2016 | # |
Total IBB | 932 |
Total # of games played | 4856 |
IBB/Game | 0.19 |
Essentially, the rule change that allows coaches to just put on a hitter as he is walking to the plate with a hand signal is saving us from something that happened at an amazing rate of .19 times per game! In addition, the fact that it is not even saving too much game time, which is the entire premise the new rule is based on, is not the only problem with the new rule. The intentional walk was never an automatic thing. Although I could not track down a stat for how many times a intentional ball was accidentally thrown to the backstop (or left over the plate to be crushed by a hitter), us Giants fans don't have to think back too far to remember Dellin Betances overthrowing an intentional pitch in the 11th inning that Angel Pagan *should have* scored on last summer.
If you haven't noticed already, I really do not like this rule change and just wanted to share the stats I found on the frequency of this play. Let me know what you guys think of the new rule!