Definition of Walks and Hit-by-Pitches in Baseball
Definition 1
- The term Base on Balls (BB), also known as a walk or 4-ball, refers to the number of times a batter reaches base due to four pitches being thrown out of the strike zone.
- The number of times a batter is hit by a pitch is referred to as Hit-by-Pitch (HBP).
Description
In Asia (Korea, Japan), a walk is still called a 4-ball, and being hit by a pitch is called a dead ball; together, they are sometimes referred to as 사사구. A walk is a primary way for a batter to reach base without swinging, and it can be viewed as a way to reach base by “watching” the ball, hence it is also called “eye baseball.”
Conversely, it’s difficult to produce a good hit with a bat when the ball is pitched outside of the strike zone. Therefore, in certain situations, some pitchers deliberately throw four balls to allow (walk) strong hitters to reach base rather than facing them directly. This was called 敬遠 (courtesy walk) in old Japanese baseball, and it is now referred to as an intentional walk. Originally, pitchers had to throw one ball at a time for an intentional walk, but in the current KBO, batters are allowed to proceed to the base once an intentional walk is declared.
Sabermetrics
사사구 refers to the following three:
- Base on Balls
- Hit-by-Pitch
- Intentional Walk
The first thing analysts need to pay attention to is how these are counted in the data. An intentional walk might be included in the walk count or it might not. The fact that a batter has many intentional walks indicates that pitchers often avoided a direct confrontation with them, implying the batter is strong; understanding this effect rather than mistaking the cause and effect relationship is crucial.
Being hit by a pitch is not particularly critical for the batter, but it can indicate a lack of control for a pitcher. Rather than identifying a trend across the entire pitching pool, it’s meaningful when a specific player shows an outlier incidence much higher than the league average.