The Diamondbacks Hitters Have Doubled Their Walk Rate
If one were to look up the team walk rates for MLB they would find the Diamondbacks tied for 29th place at 6.9%. One might conclude they had the least plate discipline of any team in the league. For a while, that was true in fact. When the season opened in Los Angeles the D-backs managed to split four games with the Dodgers despite only drawing one walk in the series while striking out 29 times. Throughout the early part of the schedule inconsistent plate discipline and lack of walks remained an issue.
There were some games they managed a decent walk total but out of their first 22 games they walked either zero or one time in 12 of them. The offense was still scoring runs at a decent clip of 4.8 per game. That was due to a healthy .264 team batting average, and over performance in "clutch" situations.
Since April 23rd however it's a completely different story. The team wide walk rate has more than doubled, and not surprisingly the runs per game has jumped along with it to 5.9 during this stretch.
Jack Sommers
Part of this improvement may be due to the schedule, but clearly not all of it. While the D-backs played a tough schedule for the first three weeks of the season, with the exception of the Dodgers the teams they've played don't have especially strong walk rates. L.A. has the 4th best walk rate in the league, but the Brewers (15th), Padres (17th) Marlins (18th) and Cardinals (19th) are all middle of the pack or worse. At the same time the teams they've played since the 23rd, includes the Royals (24th), Rockies (22nd), and the Rangers (9th).
The bulk of this improvement can be chalked up to the hitters improving their plate discipline and accepting coaching. During the earlier stretch Tory Lovullo said that while it was a concern, the lack of walks was not yet a "Red Alert" situation. That patient approach with developing young hitters has paid off. Corbin Carroll started the year off with zero walks and 15 strikeouts through his first 16 games. He didn't take his first walk until April 17th. Since that date he has nine walks and 10 strikeouts.
But it's not just young hitters responding to the call for more plate discipline. Veterans Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Ketel Marte have been taking a lot more walks since the April 23rd cut off date. The addition of Pavin Smith to the roster has helped with the walk rate as well. While Smith has not gotten many hits lately, slumping after a hot start, he has maintained a good walk rate, keeping his OBP afloat. The only two hitters that have moved backwards in their walk rate during this stretch are Josh Rojas and Evan Longoria
Jack Sommers
The Diamondbacks team ranking in walk percentage is likely to remain in the lower third of the league tables for some time. The rate of improvement is not going to continue to be double that earlier stretch most likely. This is a case however where monitoring the trend rather than the season average is probably more instructive to understanding where the team is at and where they're headed.
