How to raise a Hall of Fame hitter

If you're going to shoot for the Pros with your young slugger in mind, why would you stop at a cup of coffee. You put all that money into baseball camps, private hitting coaches, showcases, and all you want is for your son to reach the Major Leagues? Come on--they're a dime a dozen. Let's work towards a Hall of Fame career.

But how do you do that? A look at the Hall of Fame hitters for the last 20 years (1989-2009) yields some interesting information.

It seems that while fathers all over the baseball world are impressed with their little guys hitting the seams off the whiffle ball, then the baseball, they should really be looking at whether or not he can take a base. Yes, take a walk.

The average Hall of Fame hitter from Henderson and Rice way back to Bench and Yastrzemski walked every 8.37 at bats. The best walkers were Joe Morgan (4.97) and Rickey Henderson (5.01). The biggest hacker was Kirby Puckett at one walk every 16.10 at bats. Take out these extremes and the rest of the hitter still walked once every 8.86 at bats.

Patience is a one virtue that is not rewarded at youth levels, high school, and even college levels. If a player walks at a showcase baseball camp, the option is usually offered to send in a "pinch" runner and allow the hitter to swing away. Being able to take pitches and walk runs up pitch counts and it puts runners on base ("A walk's just as good as a hit," my middle school coach used to say).

The question is: does patience and a good eye lead to higher batting averages? A question for another day....

Thanks baseballhalloffame.org, baseball-reference.com