The Cubs drew six walks in Friday’s 10-5 win over the White Sox.
That’s the 18th time this year, in 45 games (or 40 percent of games) that the Cubs have drawn at least six walks. The season high is 10, in a 7-4 win over the Phillies April 21.
If you’re thinking that’s a lot of walks, you’re right. The Cubs have 210 walks so far this year, which is the most in MLB. Only one other team (Yankees, 204) has 200 or more bases on balls.
That’s 4.67 walks per game. If the Cubs could keep up that pace all season, that would make 756 walks for the year, which would demolish the franchise record. That’s exactly 100 fewer, 656 walks taken by the Cubs in 2016. You remember something else important that happened that year, I’m sure.
In fact, that would set a National League record, currently held by the 1947 Dodgers, who had 732 walks. The MLB record is an astonishing 835, set by the Red Sox in 1949. That Red Sox team had Ted Williams in his prime, with 162 walks, and two others (Johnny Pesky and Vern Stephens) who walked 100 times.
The Cubs haven’t had anyone walk 100 times in a season since Carlos Peña had 101 in 2011. And that was just the fourth 100-walk season by any Cub since 1960 (also Gary Matthews, 103 in 1984 and Sammy Sosa, 116 in 2001 and 103 in 2002).
Ian Happ currently leads the team with 34 walks, which is tied for sixth in MLB with Aaron Judge and Bryan Reynolds. If Happ keeps up that walk pace, he’ll have 122, which would be tied for second-most in team history, with Jimmy Sheckard, who did that in 1912.
Why am I writing about this and why is it important?
Well, for one thing, I hear a lot of criticism of Happ because his batting average is relatively low. For his career, Happ has a .247 BA and right now it’s at .241, right in that range.
But his .381 OBP ranks eighth in the National League and yes, that matters, because that has helped Happ score 35 runs so far this year, and that ranks tied for fourth in the league (with Oneil Cruz). And in the end, runs are what matter most in baseball. Score more runs than the other guy on a consistent basis and you will win a lot of games, which the Cubs are doing this year, as you have likely noticed. The Cubs have scored 230 runs, which ranks third in MLB (Braves, 240 and Nationals, 239). That’s 5.11 runs per game, which extrapolated to 162 games gives a possible 828 runs scored by the 2026 Cubs. The Cubs just missed scoring 800 runs last year (793) and 828 would be their third-most since 1935 (831 in 1998 and 855 in 2008 are the others).
Other current Cubs good at drawing walks are Michael Busch (24 walks, .352 OBP), Nico Hoerner (29 walks, .340 OBP) and Seiya Suzuki (19 walks in 31 games, .382 OBP). The Cubs have six bases-loaded walks this year, including one Friday by Matt Shaw. Only two teams (Rays, Angels) have more as of today.
One of those bases-loaded walks was Busch’s against the Reds May 6 [VIDEO].
Sometimes I think people turn their noses up at the humble walk. The old saying “a walk’s as good as a hit” is, in general, true — it’s got pretty much the same predictive run value as a single, if you’re leading off the inning. (Yes, I am aware that walks later in innings don’t have quite the same predictive run value as hits, though they are still valuable.)
So keep up the walks, Cubs. They’re producing value, even if the batting averages don’t seem that good, and they are producing runs — lots of them.
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