Taking a look at what teams do when they don't put the ball in play showed me something fairly interesting.  Not putting the ball in play ends up in 1 of 3 possibilities:  Walk, Strike Out or HBP.  As most of us know, good hitters tend to walk and strikeout a lot, but bad hitters tend to strikeout much more than they walk (thank you pitchers).  What is interesting from looking at the K/BB+HBP data is that 4 NL teams lead the list (and 3 of those 4 are NL East teams). 

Baseball is made up of two different games.  What happens when you don't hit the ball in play and what happens when you do.  I have written before about how walks are the most important component stat in all of baseball.  Strikeouts are often maligned because they have 0 value added (which they do).  But they are a necessary evil to get those walks, and the best team will be able to mitigate the damage of strikeouts by supplementing it with walks and HBP. 

The Mets are far and away the best of getting maximum value from not putting the ball in play.  A 1.2:1 ratio is ridiculously good, and the fewer strikeouts also gives them the added advatnage of a ball put in play and the chance that it lands in.  This worries me a bit as a Phillies fan, though with Delgado out, we may see some of this change.

I made note before that the top 4 teams are NL teams (with the pitcher/PH who will likely strikeout a lot and walk a lil).  The numbers for the Phillies are repressed a bit with Burrell gone who adds a lot to both categories. 

It appears that most teams fall in the range of 1.5-2.0 with 6 teams below and 5 above.  The biggest outlier is the Texas Rangers (who actually prompted me to write this).  Chris Davis has 59 Ks and 8 walks, Nelson Cruz has 37 Ks and 11 BBs, Jarod Saltalmacchia has 35 Ks and 7 BBs and Hank Blalock has 27 Ks and 5 walks.  Thier team .811 OPS is not sustainable with those kinds of numbers.  If you have stock in the Rangers, sell high because they are going to come crashing back to earth.