Chone Figgins with a Historic Season

Chone Figgins has to be the last player in the big leagues you'd ever want to walk.  The more power you have, the more pitchers will consider pitching around you, afraid of the damage you might cause.  Figgins is many things, but a power hitter sure isn't one of them.  He's the kind of player who is so unlikely to get Figgy with a longball that you'd expect a pitcher to just throw it down the middle on a 3 ball count.  David Eckstein was like this, he seemed like a patient hitter who avoided swinging at bad pitches, but didn't walk much because everyone made an effort to throw him strikes.

That's not the only reason to avoid walking him though.  With his speed, he can turn a walk into a triple.  Especially leading off an inning, a pitcher has to go into the PA thinking "I can't walk Figgins.  If he gets on, he has to hit his way on"

Somehow, in spite of all this Figgins has passed the 100 walk mark this season.  There have not been many speedy, non-power hitters to do this.  Since World War II, there have been only 6 seasons where a player hits fewer than 10 homers, steals 35 or more bases, and still takes 100 walks.  Three of those seasons belong to the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, Rickey Henderson.  He did it in 1980 and 1983 before he developed power, and as an old man in 1996.  Joe Morgan did it in 1970, this was before he joined the big red machine.  Hitting 8 homeruns in the 1970 Astrodome probably should be considered an impressive feat of power though.  Brett Butler did it for the 1991 Dodgers, and finally Figgins joined the club last night.