Plunk Everyone

HBPs of Note: July 2, 2009

The Mets and Pirates plunked each other 5 times at PNC park yesterday, making that just the 2nd game with 5 plunks this year. Those 5 plunks were thrown by five different pitchers, making it the first time five pitchers hit a batter in a single game since August 15, 2007 - which was also a Mets-Pirates game at PNC park. Fernando Tatis got plunked twice for the Mets, including a 10th inning HBP that put him on base to score the go-ahead run. If they'd managed to hit each other twice more in the game, one lucky player would receive the 600th plunk in PNC Park history.

Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres got hit by the 15th pitch of his career yesterday, but Houston pitcher Alberto Arias might have just been trying to kill a bee that might have landed on Gonazalez.

Javier Vasquez threw his 77th career hit batter yesterday, which leaves him 3 away from the all time record for pitchers born in Puerto Rico, behind Omar Olivares.

Labels: Bees, HBPs of note

So far this season, there have been 77 pitchers who made their major league debut. 40 of them have hit at least one batter, for a total of 68 plunks by debut year pitchers. (I'm using the term "debut year" rather than "rookie" because MLB's definition of "rookie" is complicated and guys can be rookies in several different seasons.) The total plunks by debut year pitchers is not outstanding this year, but the number of new pitchers who have hit someone is the 2nd most in the last 20 years as of July 1, behind only 2006. The 2006 season had a bumper crop of debut pitchers with 47 of them hitting at least one batter by July 1, and a total of 94 plunks by debut pitchers by that date. In 2006, 67% of players who made their major league debut before 7/1 were pitchers - this year we're up to 68%, although last year it was a 50-50 split.

But this illustrates a disturbing demographic trend - major league baseball is churning through more and more pitchers in search of effective arms. We may reach the point by around 2025 where half of the under-50 population of America will be able to claim to be a failed major league relief pitcher, and they'll probably all open friendly bars in Boston where everybody knows your name.

It's true that teams balance out their call-ups somewhat during the course of the season though - from 1995 to 2008, 58.2% of debuts in the first 3 months of the season are by pitchers, but in September when the rosters expand, 58.3% of players who debut then are position players. But overall, since 1995, 55% of players who made their major league debut have been pitchers - which sounds awfully strange if you look at the number of pitchers in a baseball lineup on a given day, or the number of pitchers on a 25 man roster on a given day. Since most rosters only contain around 40% pitchers, the explanation is that the pitchers are not staying in the league for long, and need to be replaced at a higher rate. Oddly though, the Cardinals have been carrying 13 pitchers this season, and the Angels have somehow managed to have 22 players pitch for them this season, but only 20 players bat for them. It's unlikely they'll finish the season like that, but if they do, it'll be a first. Nobody since 1902 has had the total players who pitched for their team come within 10 of the number of players who batted.

HBPs of Note: July 1, 2009

There were only 6 HBPs in yesterday's baseball action, but there were a couple of relatively big numbers achieved. Derek Jeter got his 141st career HBP and David Eckstein got his 132nd. Jeter continues to be the Yankess all time leader in getting hit by pitches, as well as the most plunked player ever born in New Jersey - but still, he'll need to play another 15 seasons at his present rate to catch Craig Biggio or contend for the all time plunk record. I'm sure Yankees fans would be happy to have him playing shortstop until he's 50 though. David Eckstein got hit by a pitch for the 132nd time in his career, which leaves him 1 plunk behind Jason Kendall for the David Eckstein Era HBP lead. Kendall has been hit 133 times since Eckstein came into the league. Jeter has only been hit 92 times since Eckstein's rookie year, and more interestingly, Derek Jeter won 4 world series rings prior to Eckstein coming into the league in 2001, but since then he has won none, while Eckstein has won the World Series twice, and the World Series MVP trophy once. Eckstein also holds the post-season record for HBPs. This would be a much bigger deal (or at least vaguely relevant information) if the team that originally drafted Eckstein had not waived him before he reached the majors - that being the Red Sox. Eckstein is on pace to contend for the all time plunk record sometime around 2020 if he can continue his HBP pace and continue to find baseball teams willing to employ him for that long. Unfortunately, he'll be 45 years old by then.

Labels: HBPs of note

HBPs of note: June 30, 2009

Kevin Youkilis was hit by George Sherrill last night, bring Youk's career total to 50. He's the 10th player to get plunked 50 times for the Red Sox, and is 1 behind Dwight Evans on the Boston franchise list. He's still behind Jason Varitek among active Red Sox, and Varitek was also plunked last night for his 57th.

Miguel Tejada got his 103rd plunk - he's tied for 61st all time with Tris Speaker and Jason Larue. Alfonso Soriano got his 65th, and Vlad Guerrero got his 84th career plunk.

Labels: HBPs of note

HBPs of Note: June 28, 2009

There were 17 plunks in yesterday's batch of major league baseball games, making it the 2nd plunkiest day of the year. Jamie Moyer's plunking of Scott Rolen wasn't just Moyer's 135th plunk thrown and Rolen's 109th plunk received, it was also the 4,500th thrown in Phillies franchise history. They're the first franchise to reach that total - although it may not be perfectly accurate because plunks weren't tracked very well on the pitching side in the early years of baseball. The Tigers are the next closest team with 4,360 known plunkings thrown in team history.

On the other hand, plunks have been tracked accurately for the past 17 seasons, so we can be sure that Andrew Miller's plunking of Ben Zobrist was the 900th thrown by the Florida Marlins. Also in that game, JP Howell hit Cody Ross, which was the 19th career plunk for both of them.

Labels: HBPs of note

HBPs or note: June 27, 2009

There were 4,394 pitches thrown in the fifteen Major League Baseball games played yesterday, but only 5 of those pitches hit a batter. The one that Alfredo Figaro threw that hit Miguel Tejada was Tejada's 102nd, but it was also the 600th plunk in Minute Maid Park history. Tejada has collected 1% of those, but he's still 50 plunks behind park record holder Craig Biggio, who was hit 56 times there. Lance Berkman is the active leader with 33 plunks at Minute Maid.

Paul Konerko got plunked for the 70th time in his career yesterday.

Labels: HBPs of note

HBPs of Note: June 26, 2009

Russell Martin of the Dodgers was hit by a pitch thrown by Roy Corcoran yesterday, giving Martin his 20th career HBP. But more importantly, Martin's plunk was the 1000th in major league history recorded by a player born in Canada. Congratulations, Canada, on your 1000th Major League plunk. Now, many politicians might plan to use this moment to serve their own interest by scaring Americans into believing that Canadians are sneaking across the border to take HBPs from hard working American baseball players but he truth of the matter is that Canadians have been getting hit by major league pitches for as long as there have been HBPs recorded. 14 plunks were recorded by Canadians in the year 1884, and from then to 1920, Canadians were the 2nd most plunked nationality, trailing Americans and just ahead of the Irish. But no Irish player has been plunked since the year 1918, while the Canadians have stuck around and gotten plunked another 612 times since that year. I guess the Irish all switched to Hockey or something. From 1920 to 1994, only 3 Canadians per year were plunked, and at the height of the little-talked-about US/Canadian cold war between 1952 and 1961, there were NO Candadians plunked in the Majors. But then NAFTA came into effect in 1994, and every full season since then has seen at least 10 plunks go to Canadian batters. Canadian plunks peaked in 2004 with 43, and Larry Walker holds the single season and career Canadian records with 14 plunks in 1995, 1997 and 2001, and 138 in all. So anyway - this is an event to be celebrate, not used in some crazy political scheme to build a border wall to keep out our neighbors from the north.

Mark Teixeira also got plunked yesterday, and that was the 1400th by someone born in Maryland. It was also his 60th. Teixeira has been hit 7 times this season, so he's on pace to break his career high of 14 set in his rookie season in 2003.

Labels: HBPs of note