Through 628 trips to the plate so far in 2009, Ichiro has earned 31 walks, of which 15 were intentional, giving him a shot at drawing as many or more intentional walks than unintentional ones. Via Baseball Reference's Play Index, here's a table of all the players ever to have pulled that off. Minimum 500 PAs, 8th-place hitters in the NL excluded.
| Player | IBB | BB | Year |
| Guerrero | 25 | 50 | 2006 |
| Bonds | 120 | 232 | 2004 |
| Pierzynski | 12 | 24 | 2003 |
| Galarraga | 12 | 24 | 1993 |
| Dawson | 21 | 42 | 1990 |
| Garvey | 10 | 20 | 1982 |
| Cromartie | 19 | 38 | 1979 |
| Sanguillen | 11 | 21 | 1972 |
| Sanguillen | 13 | 19 | 1971 |
| Sanguillen | 9 | 17 | 1970 |
| Oliver | 11 | 21 | 1969 |
| Clemente | 27 | 51 | 1968 |
| Helms | 6 | 12 | 1968 |
0 recs | 31 comments
I can't believe Galarraga hit .370/.403/.602 that year
Jeff Sullivan - September 21, 2009
Coors Field was hailed as a better park for a pitcher in my 1995 Bill James annual
Poochie - September 21, 2009
I cannot believe Ichiro leads the league in iBB
Matthew - September 21, 2009
One of them came in the second inning!
Jeff Sullivan - September 21, 2009
When was that?
gregrabble - September 21, 2009
Yesterday
drblacknwhite - September 21, 2009
When I saw 'Helms' my first thought was, "Who in the hell intentionally walked Wes Helms?!?"
Then I looked at the year. Tommy Helms. That’s better.
SethGrandpa - September 21, 2009
"Who in the hell intentionally walked Wes Helms in 1968?"
Jeff Sullivan - September 21, 2009
They were so ahead of the curve.
SethGrandpa - September 21, 2009
Those Bonds numbers look like typos.
Manzanillos Cup - September 21, 2009
I don't think of players getting IBB'd back in the day.
Interesting..
JonBBT - September 21, 2009
They were only first recorded in, what, 1955?
Jeff Sullivan - September 21, 2009
Cromartie?
Goose - September 21, 2009
Fun Fact!
Yuniesky Betancourt has been intentionally walked 3 times in his entire career. All 3 came in 2007. They came against Casey Fossum, Justin Hampson, Will Ohman. Two were against national league teams (Hampton, Ohman). Only Casey Fossum walked Betancourt on purpose. At the time, he was batting 7th in front of Jose Lopez and it came in the top of the 6th after a Johjima double.
CapSea - September 21, 2009
Barry Bonds drew 232 walks in a season
Poochie - September 21, 2009
Hmmm....
Confucious say Man with 4 balls can’t walk. Clearly, Bonds’ were so shriveled he proved this axiom correct…
PositivePaul - September 21, 2009
Didn't help his running any.
JonBBT - September 21, 2009
Confucius never said that
Poochie - September 21, 2009
That's fucking ridiculous.
Teej - September 21, 2009
.609 OBP!
BRKLN M'S - September 22, 2009
More than twice Yuni's career OBP!
Phil Hatzenbuehler - September 22, 2009
In fact, Bonds' 2004 season was worth 5.5x Yuni's entire career.
12.3 WAR vs. 2.2 career WAR
Phil Hatzenbuehler - September 22, 2009
Give Yuni another couple of years and Bonds will be worth NaNx his career
Graham MacAree - September 22, 2009
I'm just stunned that pitchers intentionally walked Manny Sanguillen.
msb - September 21, 2009
Those teams had some black holes on offense, and Sanguillen wasn't one of them.
The shortstops back then were ~ .600-.640 OPS types.
marc w - September 22, 2009
I know ....
Manny had such an enthusiatic swing, it just made me laugh
msb - September 22, 2009
I think there would be quite a few guys in Sanguillen's situation - guys w/o a lot of pop who hit before 70s shortstops.
We’ll call it the Oyler corollary to Jeff’s 8th place NL hitter exclusion.
Looks like Pilots 7th hitters racked up a decent number of IBBs in 1969 despite being almost Oyleresque at the plate.
John Donaldson had 5 in a half season of PAs despite OPSing less than .600. Ron Clark had 2 in less than 200 PAs despite an OPS under .500. Sadly, both guys drew a decent number of unintentional walks (though how unintentional were they REALLY?), so don’t appear on this list.
marc w - September 22, 2009
But Sanguillen was a catcher
LCT - September 22, 2009
Yes! What is your point?
marc w - September 22, 2009
Manny Sanguillen hit .300 on 4 separate occasions.
Poochie - September 22, 2009
This season the entire Seattle Mariners roster has only been walked 80 more times than Bonds did in 2004.
That’s 5674 PA for the M’s and 617 PA for Bonds.
Our offence still has a long way to go…
EnglishMariner - September 22, 2009
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