Baseball Toaster runs on some experimental software called Fairpole. It's still under development.
For more information, please visit the Fairpole blog, or read the FAQ.
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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