Dusty "Walks Clog Up the Bases" Baker changes his tune a bit in discussing Corey Patterson in the leadoff spot, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. "He hasn't learned the art of how to walk,'' the paper quotes Baker as saying. "He'll swing at a bad 3-1 pitch or a bad 2-0 pitch. He's not advanced enough in his game to know when to work the count. He's still learning, and I don't think he has found the kind of hitter he is going to be yet."

And so what does Baker do after moving Patterson down in the lineup? He sticks Neifi Perez in the leadoff spot, at least when Jerry Hairson, Jr. is not playing. In today's Daily Herald, Baker is quoted as saying about Perez, "He led off for four years in Colorado, so he knows how to do it."

Perez had a lifetime .301 OBA coming into this season, despite having played the equivalent of four full seasons in Denver. That .301 OBA is 66 points below the adjusted league average during the time he has played. The most walks he's ever drawn in a season in 38. That was seven years ago.

Perez himself says, "I’m not promising I’m going to be taking more walks."

So, Patterson has failed as a leadoff hitter because he hasn't learned the art of the walk. But Perez expressly doesn't care about walks, but he "knows how" to lead off.