Bartolo Colon Made History Last Night

Bartolo Colon has been a major league pitcher for longer than the high school kids being drafted this weekend have been alive. It’s likely that he has seen and done more in his major league career than any of these draftees will ever have the opportunity to see and do. He’s pitched in All-Star Games and the postseason. He’s played in 42 different major league parks – 42! He’s won a Cy Young Award and struck out 2,285 batters. He hit a home run! He’s had about as full and productive a career as one can have without being deemed Hall of Fame worthy.

Of course, there are still a few things Colon hasn’t done in his career. He’s never won a World Series or thrown a no-hitter, for instance. But plenty of illustrious careers end without those achievements being added to a resume. There is one glaring and unique empty statistical category remaining on Bartolo Colon’s career stat sheet, though: he has never drawn a walk in his career. In fact, after his two strikeout, one sac bunt performance against Brewers pitching last night, Bartolo Colon now holds the record for most career plate appearances without drawing a single walk.

Although much of Colon’s career has occurred in the designated hitter league, he has now stepped to the plate 260 times in his career dating back to his first career plate appearance in 1997 against the Cardinals’ Andy Benes. From Terry Adams to Jordan Zimmermann, Colon has faced 131 different pitchers and not a single one has yielded ball four.

Colon is known to be a strike thrower on the mound. Since joining the Mets in 2014, his 3.5 BB% allowed and 51.0 Zone% are both the second lowest rate among qualified starting pitchers trailing only Phil Hughes. In the batter’s box, he approaches pitchers as if they’re going to pitch to him the same way he pitches everybody — with a steady diet of strikes — and, as it turns out, it’s a reasonable approach. He has seen a higher rate of pitches in the strike zone than any other batter (min. 150 PA) since 2014 by a wide margin.

The one slight common misconception about Colon is that he’s a hacker at the plate. Although his Swing% is above average — 50.2% since 2014 — it ranks just 127th of the 547 batters in that same 150+ plate appearance group. He’s not actually afraid to take a pitch and has been known to put together remarkably passive plate appearances from time to time. But the disproportionate percentage of pitches he sees in the zone has combined with a tragically low 60.8% Contact% (3rd of 547) to prevent him from ever drawing a free pass.

Colon’s inability to work a count is so extreme that he has only ever seen a three-ball count seven times in his entire career — 2.7% of his plate appearances. The first time he worked a three-ball count was way back in 2002 — well before the PITCHf/x era — but we have the data available to look at the other six times Colon came within one pitch of a walk. How close has Colon come to working a walk? Let’s take a look at each near miss in reverse order of how close he came to ball four.

6. 9/10/15 vs. Shelby Miller

Last September, back when Shelby Miller was a feared starting pitcher, Bartolo Colon came within inches of career walk #1. One of the fun things about going back and watching Colon at the plate is listening to how invested the SNY broadcasters are in Colon as a hitter. Broadcast crews often drift off to other topics when a pitcher is at the plate, but the SNY crew keep the analysis coming with Colon at the plate. And, wouldn’t you know it, after the second pitch of this at bat last September, Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen was completely on top of the walk-less streak.

The first pitch was a fastball that missed in and Colon fouled off the second fastball to bring the count to 1-1 at which point Cohen declared, “You know, there’s one thing [Colon] still hasn’t done in his career… he still has never walked.” After the next pitch missed low for ball two, Cohen said, “Maybe he’s working on that here.”

Bartolo took the next pitch:

It was the same two-seamer that missed wildly for the ball one, but this time Miller hit his mark. For the 2-2 pitch, though, Shelby Miller inexplicably went to a curveball and this happened:

Gary Cohen absolutely exploded. “The curveball misses! Who knows, this could be a historic event. Something he’s never done before and he could be on the verge of it now!”

Colon grounded out to the shortstop on the next pitch. Sorry, Gary.

5. 6/12/12 vs. Jeremy Guthrie

It’s sad to remember a time when Colon at bats were a rare occurrence, but that was reality in 2012. With an interleague matchup at Coors Field, Colon stepped into the box to face Jeremy Guthrie. There are two notable things about this plate appearance. First, it’s one of just two times Colon has found himself up in the count 3-1. Second, Colon adopted the time-tested strategy of keeping the bat on your shoulder and making the pitcher do the work. I don’t have any video of this at bat, but judging by the PITCHf/x chart, it looks like Guthrie was up to the challenge of throwing three pitches over the plate to a passive Colon.

4. 6/2/14 vs. Roberto Hernandez

Unsurprisingly, this nine-pitch duel with Roberto Hernandez was the longest plate appearance of Colon’s career. Once again, the SNY crew set the stage almost eerily well for what was about to unfold. Before the at bat began, they discussed the offensive woes of both Colon and the opposing pitcher, Hernandez. Then the first pitch sinker came in:

Gary Cohen responded, “Colon, who has been very aggressive with his swings, might just let [Hernandez] walk him if he wants to.” Hernandez stuck with the sinker and after three fouls and another ball brought the count to 2-2, it was time for a change. On the sixth pitch, he tried to sneak in a slider:

It just barely missed and Colon didn’t bite. Cohen’s reaction? “Maybe he will draw a walk.” Of course not, Gary. That’s not the Bartolo way. He fouled off the next two before Hernandez got him to whiff for strike three.

3. 9/5/14 vs. JJ Hoover

Here is the other time Colon has worked a 3-1 count and, once again, he employed an ultra-passive approach. Look at the way Colon takes the first pitch:

That is not a man with even passing interest in swinging a bat. The bat stayed firmly attached to his shoulder until the count ran full. Finally Colon gave in and swung, but watch the pitch he swung on:

The PITCHf/x chart above shows it was in the zone, but pitcher J.J. Hoover clearly missed his spot. If Colon had been passive for one more pitch, might the umpire have been fooled by the movement of the catcher’s mitt? It’s certainly the closest we’ve come to a Bartolo Colon walk to this point.

2. 7/28/14 vs. AJ Burnett

It almost happened; and it almost happened in typical Bartolo fashion. He went up against a struggling A.J. Burnett who had faced eight batters in the first inning and was in the midst of a season in which a hernia kept him from pitching at his best for the majority of a season. If ever there was a time for Bartolo to keep that bat glued to his shoulder and let the pitcher walk him, this was it.

Four pitches into the swingless at bat and Colon faced a 2-2 count. Burnett’s next pitch:

Not even close! Do it, Bartolo. Let him walk you! In came the 3-2 pitch:

The run on that sinker very nearly brought it out of the zone, but the streak lived to see another day.

1. 6/9/16 vs. Jimmy Nelson

Bartolo Colon came perilously close to not setting this record tonight. The elusive walk was there for the taking. Jimmy Nelson missed wildly on the second and third pitches to bring the count to 2-1. After a failed bunt attempt, Nelson threw this 2-2 pitch:

With ball three recorded, the SNY crew remained diligently attentive. Immediately after this pitch, they reminded the audience exactly what was at stake: “Now keep in mind… Bartolo has never drawn a walk.” Nelson had been wild throughout the at bat. Surely Bartolo would just take the walk?

Pitch #6:

Pitch #7:

Two balls out of the zone. Two swings. An achievement thwarted and a peculiar record secured. The Most Plate Appearances Without A Walk record belongs to Bartolo. Now the question is: can he sustain the streak through the remainder of his career?