what is bb in baseball

In baseball, BB stands for "base on balls," which is also known as a walk. A walk occurs when a pitcher throws four pitches outside the strike zone, and the hitter does not swing at any of them. After the fourth ball, the batter is awarded first base. In the scorebook, a walk is denoted by the letters BB. Walks are an important statistic in baseball, as they can be used to measure a pitchers control and a hitters eye. A pitchers walk rate, or the frequency with which they walk hitters, is an important tool for assessing their capabilities. An intentional base on balls (IBB) is a subset of the base on balls, which occurs when the defensive team intentionally issues a walk to the batter. In Major League Baseball and many amateur leagues, an intentional base on balls is signaled to the home plate umpire by the defensive teams manager holding up four fingers, at which point the batter is awarded first base without any further pitches being thrown.