Is pitches seen per plate appearance over-emphasized?

A statistic that is increasingly pointed to as an indicator of a "good" batter is the number of pitches he sees per plate appearance (P/PA). The logic goes that the more patient a batter a player is, the more likely they are to take a base on balls or get a pitch to hit. In addition, the more pitches a batter takes, the more a pitcher is throwing, therefore wearing him out more quickly, allowing the batters team to more frequently get pitched to by the weaker bullpen arms, resulting in more runs scored. While the logic is there, do the numbers back it up? Let's find out.

Using the stats from 2007, here are some numbers from the top 10 players in P/PA:

Player	P/PA	OBP	SLG	OPS	VORP
Reggie Willits	4.44	.391	.344	.735	15.2
Jack Cust	4.40	.408	.504	.912	32.6
Bobby Abreu	4.38	.369	.445	.814	27.9
Todd Helton	4.34	.434	.494	.928	51.9
Kevin Millar	4.32	.365	.420	.785	14.4
Johnny Damon	4.30	.351	.396	.747	17.8
Kevin Youkilis	4.27	.390	.453	.843	31.1
Nick Swisher	4.25	.381	.455	.836	31.5
Brandon Inge	4.23	.312	.376	.688	-3.3
Pat Burrell	4.22	.400	.439	.839	34.5
AVERAGE (rounded to 3 digits)	4.32	.380	.506	.887	25.4

and the 10 players in the middle percentile (Aaron Hill was the 50th) in P/PA:

Player	P/PA	OBP	SLG	OPS	VORP
Jorge Posada	3.83	.426	.543	.970	73.4
Edgar Renteria	3.83	.390	.470	.860	47.5
Austin Kearns	3.83	.355	.411	.765	12.6
Adrian Gonzalez	3.83	.347	.502	.849	38.4
Aaron Hill	3.82	.333	.459	.792	27.1
Troy Tulowitzki	3.82	.359	.479	.838	37.8
Chipper Jones	3.81	.425	.604	1.029	76.0
Dustin Pedroia	3.80	.380	.442	.823	35.9
Mike Lowell	3.80	.378	.501	.879	46.5
Alex Rodriguez	3.80	.422	.645	1.067	96.6
AVERAGE (rounded to 3 digits)	3.82	.382	.506	.887	49.2

and the 10 lowest P/PA:

Player	P/PA	OBP	SLG	OPS	VORP
Juan Pierre	3.40	.331	.353	.685	16.2
Orlando Cabrera	3.39	.345	.397	.742	31.7
Kenji Johjima	3.39	.322	.433	.755	22.2
Freddy Sanchez	3.38	.343	.442	.784	27.5
Torii Hunter	3.37	.334	.505	.839	39.2
Pedro Feliz	3.30	.290	.418	.708	-2.7
Tony Pena Jr.	3.23	.284	.356	.640	-7.6
Vladimir Guerrero	3.23	.403	.547	.950	62.6
Yuniesky Betancourt	3.19	.308	.418	.725	16.2
Corey Patterson	3.15	.304	.386	.690	8.4
AVERAGE (rounded to 3 digits)	3.30	.326	.426	.752	21.4

While these selections obviously don't tell the whole picture, it's pretty revealing to see that some of the better bats of 2007 - ARod, Chipper, Jorge - are all dead center when it comes to pitches seen, while some scrubs and above average fellows fill out the top 10 for the most part. Granted, we have some pretty poor players in the bottom 10 - Juan Pierre, Pedro Feliz, and the truly awful Tony Pena Jr. - but also clearly valuable players like Vlad and Torii Hunter.

So clearly many of the least valuable players in the league, the guys who don't ever walk, get on base, or even hit for power, are the same players who are impatient at the plate. However, simply being superior at seeing more pitches does not appear to be a big factor in being a valuable player, as the guys in the middle of the pack average nearly identical OBP and SLG to the league leaders, while managing to average a much higher VORP.

Additionally, the assertion that a batter who sees more pitches will wear a starting pitcher down more quickly is pretty ridiculous. If the most patient batters are seeing 1 more P/PA than the least patient, that is a theoretical difference of about 5 pitches per game - and that's over 9 innings. Most starting pitchers are going to see a single batter 3-4 times per game - and it's difficult to make the claim that 3-4 more pitches from a starter is going to truly impact upon the batting ability of the batters facing him, or get him out of a game any faster.

So it's fairly apparent that poor batters show the tendency to be free swingers, but patience at the plate does not a good hitter make. Players like ARod and Chipper Jones are going to swing when they get a pitch to hit - no matter when it comes. It's safe to say that a batter averaging under, say, 3.5 P/PA is doing something wrong, but I believe it's incorrect to look at the stat as some sort of larger indicator of offensive prowess.