Walking Bonds

Barry Bonds is one of the best baseball players ever to lace up cleats. He's also one of, if not the class of, the premier hitters in MLB. Unfortunately, his AB's have been few and far between early in the season. After torching pitchers in spring training, Bonds has 1 hit in 7 AB's in the Giants first 3 games. Yes, the great Barry Bonds is hitting a meager .143. However, his OBP is .455. Why? His 3 BB's and 1 HBP makes him 5 for 11 reaching base. Pitch to him ... maybe he's mortal this year.

What happened in today's game? It was 2-2 in the 3rd with 1 out and Ray Durham on 2nd when Bonds strolled to the plate against Jorge Sosa. Sosa threw two pitches that weren't even close to the strike zone. Then, Bobby Cox called for the intentional pass ... the 2nd to Bonds in as many plate appearances. After Moises Alou and Lance Niekro reached, Pedro Feliz made the score 6-2 with a bases clearing triple and Sosa's day was finished. Pitching to Bonds couldn't ha! ve been any worse, and maybe if Cox showed some confidence in his starter Sosa could have worked through a rough inning.

Albert Pujols is the reigning NL MVP. He's hitting .500 with 3 HR's already. Yet, he's only walked 4 times (at least as far as I can tell from the stats I've been able to find on-line). It's time to pass the torch from Bonds to Pujols. Intentionally walk the Cardinals slugger 100+ times a year, to go along with 100+ of the normal variety. Bonds isn't the player he was a couple years ago. I think it's time for him to be treated like a good player ... that's what he is. Bonds, Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Derrek Lee, Carlos Lee, Andruw Jones ... they're all in the good-great range. Any one of them can single-handedly hurt you consistently if you make bad pitches.

Teams need to make a better effort to get Bonds out. Nibbling on the first two pitches and falling behind 2-0 isn't going to cut it. Try to make quality pitches ... if ! you happen to walk him, you walk him. Moises Alou hit .321 last year. His slugging % was .518. Those are quality numbers and are in-line with his career numbers. If teams continue to walk Bonds so consistently, and Alou is healthy, Moises is going to have a good year.