In Pursit of 900 walks
 

Last season my Sodor Tank Engines (set up to entice my 4-year old grandson into playing beyond pack openings) got 828 walks. The all-time record is 847 by Boston in 1947 (or 1949, I can't remember).

This year I replaced Earl "The Pinch Walker" Torgeson with Joey Votto and got up to 858 walks. So I beat the all-time record and of course got nothing for that momentous achievement.

My pitchers only allowed 387 free passes, so I was close to +500 for the season. We had 944 runs scored--first, while being 14th in HRs.

I'm not sure there is anything I can do to get 42 more walks next season because the OOTP engine is not going to create any more walks and I'm at about the limits of snagging walks for me.

Any suggestions?

The team:

Depends on your budget, but if you're looking for something cheap, you could trade out backup catcher Bo Diaz for Butch Wynegar, who at least for me put up some healthy walk totals playing against RHP. The one chilling on my reserve roster has 151 walks in 1174 PAs, so he might be a cheap and modest upgrade if you're not looking to spend a lot.

Budget isn't an issue. I looked for Butch, but found Wockenfuss to catch versus lefties, so a definite upgrade there, I hope.

If budget isn't an issue - adding Mike Trout also helps quite a bit with walks. I remember being able to add quite a bit more eye ratings by having a bunch of LH/RH platoons.

Bryce Harper is also a cheap addition to add a ton of walks - maybe over Paul O'Neil? Hartsel is great against RH but the 72 eye against LH isn't great

Ha, ha!

I have about 14k to spend. Not Trout money.

I like O'Neil and Brosius but I might have to go Harper or Judge next time around. Also when Hartsel drops to 72, so many other guys go BLUE that a RH reliever is merely a few batters away. Pulling lots of walks means going deep into bullpens every game, almost.

Update
 

After 30 games we have 174 walks, on a pace for 940!

Yost has 30 walks in 30 games as DH.

Goal achieved.
 

926 walks.

No PP for the record-setting accomplishment.

I guess that will be it for me and PT in 19.

How did your all-walks team do in the playoffs?

Breaking team records like what you did are fun. There's of course the guys who have made teams that regularly steal over 581 stolen bases in a year.

One guy on these forums broke the 100+ year old record for team shutouts held by the 1906 Cubs with 32 shutouts. This guy's team achieved 40! And added another 5 or so in the playoffs. Of course, no PP for that astounding achievement.

PT20 did start rewarding teams for "shared shutouts."

Thought I would try this in PT20. At the halfway mark (81 games) I have 508 walks so far. Have the number one offense by quite a margin but also the worst defense in the league.

Made it to the finals again and lost again. Random, I suppose. I don't do anything differently in the playoffs, just keep things as they are.

Always had the most runs scored. Pitching a went with CONTROL guys to push more walks my way. That worked, it seemed. Defense was good enough to usually be top 3 in runs allowed. With around +550 in walks each year being last in HRs is more than made up by always having men on when a HR is hit. Paul O'Neil was top 2 in WAR nearly every year and usually the RBI leader.

Pee Wee Reese was the best player in WAR with one MVP.

I found I got fewer walks the second half of most seasons due to the bad teams upgrading their pitching. So 508 is a fine start.

Was planning on upgrading at least one position (1B), but now I think I'll leave it the same to see how much it drops off the 2nd half.

Finished the season with 986 walks. Had 508 the first half and a small decrease with 478 in the 2nd half. Was hoping to reach 1000, but looking forward to trying again.

I went to Votto at first and he got 120 or so walks. I saw Norm Cash for sale yesterday and decided the baseball card collector in me needed him at first base, so I bought for 35k.

Votto is one of the ones I had my eye on at 1B (in PT20), and now that he has dropped from diamond to gold, he might go down in price (it hasn't yet). I think people in PT20 will be quick to up the price of a player (like happened with Bellinger) but slow (if at all) to lower the price of a player who drops. That being said, I got 99 walks out of Vogelbach.

Whelp, I had saved up enough PPs to buy eleven packs for my 4-year old grandson to open. He came up with:

100 Bagwell
96 Blake Treinan
95 Honus Wagner

Forgot 92 Aaron Nola, too.

"I want more explosions!"

The best haul ever for me.

Add this to the best record in the league, and I think Sodor is going up.

1011 walks this season. At the halfway point, I was behind pace with 497 BBs. Added Miller Huggins and increased my pace for the 2nd half to finish with the 1011.

With 4 games left, I wasn't far from 1100 walks, but far enough it looked like it would have to wait until next year. But after games of 10, 10, and 8, I needed 7 in the last game... and got 6. Finished with 1099 walks. If I break down and get Votto, that would push me over.

My final season pursuing walks. Finished with 1134 this year. I brought in a decent SS that doesn't walk much, so that position alone will cost me 100 walks so I'm moving on to building the team in other ways. To get cheap players that walked a lot, my defense was worst in the league every season. But it was fun while it lasted. On the flip side, in addition to having the highest OBP and sometimes even the highest BA, I led the league in runs scored just about every year. So getting that many walks has their perks.
:D