the intentional walk

[SA]

curious about how many of you all out there make use of the intentional walk and/or intentional bean ball.

through my years of partaking in the RBI (at the highest levels of competition), I have found that issuing an intentional pass is just a good idea in certain situations.

there are certain guys who will almost always warrant a free pass when ol' SA is on the hill...(specifically if I've got anything less than a 3 run lead).  two of these guys fall into almost the exact same grouping:

Glenn Davis (the big bopper)
Jack Clark

why face either of these guys when you can put them on and just face the scrubs that bat behind them?

other players that "may" get an intentional pass from me, depending on the situation:

Daryl Strawberry (5 tool player; you bet I'd rather face Walling, HOJO, Heep or T Teufel instead of "the Straw-man")
Reggie Jackson (if this guy gets bat-on-ball, it's probably going to be hit hard)

Obviously, when going up against a team like Boston or Detroit, putting a guy on base is borderline ludicrous due to the immense amount of  "pop" up and down the lineup.  That said, depending on the situation, I'll try my damndest to pitch around both K Gibson (5 tool player) and J Rice (IMO, the most feared right handed stick on the game).

I also seem to have problems facing both K Mitchell and C Maldonado on SF.

In a completely different stategic ploy, very often I will put on whoever is hitting in the 8 hole to get to the pitcher...again, why go at a guy that could hurt you if you've got an almost "sure out" right behind him?

anyhoo, just curious if any other "RBI"er's are issuing the free pass and, if so, to who.

[MarquisEXB]

I use the IBB sometimes. Funny thing is - even that I announce it, the guy I play against sometimes swings. If I get two strikes on him, then I usually go for the K. I use it in the very late innings when a slugger is up & no one is up after him.

I don't IBB the 8th guy, because usually he sucks anyway. I remember reading somewhere that in RL this isn't a good strategy, because of two reasons. First is you're putting someone on base that normally wouldn't be there (so you're giving up an out). Second is you miss the all important getting the leadoff guy out (the pitcher) in the next inning. Your chances of scoring go up or down greatly depending on what the leadoff guy does. Why not try to get that #8 guy out, so the next inning they have an extra out (the pitcher) when going through the heart of their lineup.

Mike

[vgp100]

Where I play, it's frowned upon. We play strikes only!

[RockRaines4life]

SA is right on the money about walking Jack Clark.  We have a theory that you can tell every inning JC batted just by looking at the line score after the game- if there's a run for St. Louis, JC must have been up.  As a result I walk him everytime unless there's bases loaded or no one on, two outs.  As for Glen Davis, usually Houston is getting blown out so bad a few solo shots by him won't matter.

[vgp100]

I like how you refer to Jack Clark as JC. Maybe you're trying to say that Clark has a "higher power"
rating than most.

[Gantry]

We obviously don't use it in straight pitch, but if I could I would walk Darrell Evans every single time...

[Burnzky]

       We play "strike play".  So if we ever throw a ball, and the player takes it, we have to throw the next pitch right down the middle. This eliminates all intentional walks, but it's fun to try and hit a guy and he ends up swinging any way.  

[SA]

Marquis EXB -- very valid point on going after the guy in the 8 hole.

as you point out, usually there is a scrub batting there as well....so, I find that usually I'm facing a pinch hitter that can swing it.  certainly if it's late in the game and you're trying to avoid getting back to the middle of the lineup, you'd want to go right at the guy batting 8th.