Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
If you couldn't tell, I'm on vacation and attempting to milk every drop from this subject before I take my leave. I'm continuing the walk study with postdated research ad nauseum.
Anyway, this time I thought it would be interesting to look at the players who suddenly learned to draw a walk after becoming a regular player. I looked at the biggest increase in walks above expectation per plate appearance for those players with at least 400 plate appearances in the given year. Here are the best:
| Name | Yr | BB Above Exp Pre | BB Above Exp | Diff |
| Reggie Smith | 1977 | -1.48% | 7.98% | .0946 |
| Ted Williams | 1941 | 5.21% | 14.51% | .0930 |
| Fred Carroll | 1889 | 2.59% | 11.82% | .0922 |
| George Grantham | 1929 | 3.27% | 12.19% | .0892 |
| Clay Dalrymple | 1962 | -2.52% | 6.39% | .0890 |
| Richie Ashburn | 1954 | -0.17% | 8.54% | .0870 |
| Babe Ruth | 1926 | 5.03% | 13.26% | .0823 |
| Frank Chance | 1905 | 0.46% | 8.57% | .0811 |
| Babe Ruth | 1930 | 3.83% | 11.92% | .0809 |
| Danny O'Connell | 1956 | -2.85% | 5.23% | .0808 |
| Wayne Garrett | 1970 | 0.51% | 8.54% | .0803 |
| Jack Crooks | 1892 | 6.58% | 14.58% | .0799 |
| Dolph Camilli | 1936 | 2.79% | 10.46% | .0767 |
| Pete Rose | 1985 | 1.18% | 8.71% | .0753 |
| Mark McGwire | 1998 | 4.89% | 12.41% | .0752 |
| Joe Sommer | 1887 | -3.41% | 4.11% | .0752 |
| Rocky Colavito | 1961 | -0.80% | 6.67% | .0748 |
| Barry Bonds | 2001 | 7.30% | 14.76% | .0746 |
| Candy Nelson | 1884 | 2.88% | 10.27% | .0739 |
| Luke Appling | 1935 | 1.93% | 9.28% | .0735 |
| George Selkirk | 1936 | -1.25% | 6.06% | .0731 |
| Rickey Henderson | 1996 | 5.40% | 12.70% | .0730 |
| John Morrill | 1885 | 1.13% | 8.38% | .0724 |
| Jimmy Sheckard | 1911 | 4.61% | 11.81% | .0720 |
| Ron Fairly | 1973 | 0.43% | 7.57% | .0715 |
| Ron Santo | 1964 | -1.56% | 5.54% | .0710 |
| Hank Greenberg | 1947 | 3.98% | 11.03% | .0705 |
| Cal Abrams | 1955 | 5.07% | 12.01% | .0694 |
| Toby Harrah | 1975 | -0.12% | 6.76% | .0688 |
| Johnny Evers | 1908 | -0.67% | 6.20% | .0687 |
Now for players who suddenly lost the ability to draw a walk:
| Name | Yr | BB Above Exp Pre | BB Above Exp | Diff |
| George Gore | 1887 | 12.16% | 1.24% | -.1092 |
| Willie McCovey | 1975 | 12.00% | 2.47% | -.0953 |
| Ray Chapman | 1919 | 6.32% | -1.92% | -.0824 |
| Babe Ruth | 1929 | 12.02% | 3.83% | -.0819 |
| Yank Robinson | 1891 | 14.50% | 6.41% | -.0809 |
| Mike Sweeney | 2004 | 5.20% | -2.52% | -.0773 |
| Bob Bescher | 1914 | 7.68% | 0.09% | -.0759 |
| Elmer Flick | 1899 | 7.94% | 0.58% | -.0737 |
| George Grantham | 1930 | 12.19% | 4.88% | -.0731 |
| Babe Ruth | 1925 | 12.26% | 5.03% | -.0722 |
| Ted Williams | 1955 | 16.19% | 9.03% | -.0716 |
| Jimmy Wynn | 1970 | 13.27% | 6.13% | -.0715 |
| Arky Vaughan | 1937 | 9.47% | 2.41% | -.0707 |
| Clay Dalrymple | 1963 | 6.39% | -0.66% | -.0705 |
| Dave Nelson | 1973 | 3.66% | -3.33% | -.0699 |
| Carlos Lee | 2003 | 4.53% | -2.45% | -.0697 |
| Arnold Hauser | 1911 | 2.39% | -4.56% | -.0694 |
| Frank Chance | 1904 | 7.39% | 0.46% | -.0692 |
| Goose Goslin | 1933 | 4.74% | -2.09% | -.0683 |
| Bill Dahlen | 1901 | 5.94% | -0.83% | -.0678 |
| Donie Bush | 1913 | 10.03% | 3.28% | -.0675 |
| Bob Allen | 1891 | 6.85% | 0.13% | -.0671 |
| Omar Moreno | 1979 | 4.98% | -1.73% | -.0671 |
| Cal Ripken Jr. | 1989 | 6.22% | -0.45% | -.0668 |
| Ken Williams | 1925 | 5.81% | -0.81% | -.0662 |
| Fred Carroll | 1890 | 11.82% | 5.22% | -.0660 |
| Johnny Groth | 1951 | 3.06% | -3.49% | -.0655 |
| Andruw Jones | 1998 | 3.45% | -2.97% | -.0643 |
| Jack Clark | 1991 | 14.17% | 7.76% | -.0641 |
| Roger Maris | 1958 | 4.75% | -1.54% | -.0629 |
And Ruth "learning" how to walk in 1926 and 1930, yet "forgetting" in 1925 and 1929? That seems more random than anything else.
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