Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 48 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
48
is the number of unintentional walks Tim Collins issued. The beauty of this number is, when I started working on the outline of this countdown two weeks ago, Day #48 was going to be about Collins. Now, thanks to the Royals signing Collins to a one-year deal last night, it’s a timely topic.
I love Tim Collins. I love that he came to the Royals in exchange for Professor Farnsworth and Dick Ankiel. I love that immediately, Braves fans started telling me 1) that they were SO SAD to see Collins go, and 2) that we were going to love watching him. I love watching that little half-tornado delivery and the novelty of such a relatively little* guy dishing out legitimate 93+ MPH fastballs.
*he’s still taller than me by a bit, and has frightening muscles. So I hesitate to call him shrimpy.
But I do not love watching Tim Collins walk so many batters, and still get sent to the mound every other day. He walked 6.4 batters per nine innings in 2011, which was the worst among relieves with at least 60 IP. (For reference, the mean among this group is 3.23 BB/9.) Most guys who walk that many batters don’t get that many innings, nor should they unless more of those innings are in garbage time. In fact, if you lower the minimum IP all the way down to 10, there are still only handful of guys – 16 – who walked more than Collins did in 2011.
So basically, the only pitchers in all of the Majors who issued more walks per nine than Tim Collins barely pitched at all.
I want to reiterate that I love Tim Collins. I truly do. (Enough to make a wallpaper of him, even!) I just hope that he is made to earn his spot as the go-to lefty this year, rather than being handed the team lead in appearances just because he was That Guy for the team last year.
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