[siberian khatru]

I knew it!

But there are some walks that are more frustrating than others. For example: walks that occur after the pitcher gets ahead in the count 0-2. The 2016 Royals have had an issue with that.

Last year, Royals pitchers got ahead 0-2 against opponents in 1,180 plate appearances. Those counts eventually led to strikeouts 492 times, which was 41.7 percent of the time. They let batters draw a walk after an 0-2 count 40 times, or 3.4 percent of the time.

This year, they’ve gotten ahead 0-2 in 275 plate appearances. Opponents have actually struck out more often (46.2 percent), but they’ve drawn 17 walks, which comes out to a rate of 6.2 percent.
...

The Royals are walking too many batters overall, but the issue feels even more frustrating when 12.4 percent of all the free passes handed out have come after getting two quick strikes.