Plunk Everyone

Randy Johnson announced his retirement this week, ending his career with a total of 190 hit batters. And while it would have been nice to see him become the first modern era pitcher to crack the 200 plunk mark, it's good to see him go out on a high note - and with a hit batter in his final pitching appearance.

In celebration of the Big Unit's career in the plunkular arts, below are a selection of notable* facts and lists of his accomplishments. Out of respect for the national society for the protection of seagulls and pigeons, we won't be mentioning the thing with the bird. If you'd like a complete list of everyone Randy Johnson ever hit by a pitch, you can find that here.

*-definitions of "notable" subject to interpretation. ("You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. ")

• Randy Johnson retired holding the career franchise record for most hit batters for both the Mariners and Diamondbacks. Only two other pitchers have done that - but one was Charlie Hough, who retired with the hit batter record for the Rangers and the Marlins - but the Marlins had only existed for 2 years at that point. The other was Tim Keefe, who retired in 1894 holding the record for both the Phillies and the New York Giants, but pitching records for hit batters were very poorly kept back then, so that one can't be trusted.

• Randy Johnson hit 3 batters on his birthday - Barry Bonds, Carney Lansford and Charlie O'Brien

• He only plunked two pitchers - David Wells and Kevin Jarvis

• Randy Johnson hit the opposing 2nd Baseman 31 times, but only two of them were named Pat. None were named Craig Biggio: Fernando Vina (2), Damion Easley (2), Terry Shumpert (2), Wilton Guerrero, Eric Young, Adam Kennedy, Al Newman, Alex Cora, Carlos Baerga, Chad Meyers, Chase Utley, Chuck Knoblauch, Howie Kendrick, Jerry Browne, Jose Lopez, Jose Offerman, Luis Alicea, Mark McLemore, Mike Benjamin, Nick Green, Pat Kelly, Pat Meares, Ray Durham, Rico Rossy, Roberto Alomar, Rod Correia, Scott Brosius, Scott Fletcher

• With Johnson's retirement, there is no longer any active pitcher who has plunked Pete Incaviglia, Mike Greenwell, Steve Balboni or Carney Lansford

• Mike Greenwell is the only batter Randy Johnson ever plunked on the batter's birthday - he hit Greenwell with a pitch on Greenwell's 30th birthday.

• Reed Johnson is the only batter named Johnson ever plunked by Randy Johnson, and also the only player to score 4 runs after reaching base on Big Unit plunks. In all, 52 of the batters (or their pinch runners) came around to score after being plunked by Randy Johnson: Reed Johnson (4), Darin Erstad (2), Jim Leyritz (2), Pat Listach, Luis Matos, Chad Meyers, David Newhan, Charlie O'Brien, Corey Patterson, Ben Petrick, Juan Pierre, Kevin Reimer, Richie Sexson, Mike Simms, Chase Utley, Fernando Vina, Felix Fermin, Mike Gallego, Joey Gathright, Leo Gomez, Rene Gonzales, Craig Grebeck, Charlie Hayes, Tim Hulett, Kevin Jarvis, Roberto Alomar, Steve Balboni, Albert Belle, Marvin Benard, Mike Benjamin, Glenn Braggs, Scott Brosius, Jerry Browne, Jeromy Burnitz, Mike Cameron, Joe Carter, Brady Clark, Alex Cora, Carl Crawford, Brian Downing, J.D. Drew, Damion Easley, Kevin Elster, Wally Joyner, Roberto Kelly,
  Adam Kennedy, Chuck Knoblauch

• Reed Johnson and Jim Leyritz are the only batters to be hit 4 times by Randy Johnson.
  

• Randy Johnson hit 8 different batters named Mike, a total of 10 times. No other first name collected as many plunks from him: Mike Kinkade (3), Mike Macfarlane, Mike Simms, Mike Sweeney, Mike Benjamin, Mike Cameron, Mike Gallego, Mike Greenwell (Johnson hit two Mikes on the Red Sox and two Mikes on the Royals, but never hit two players with the same first name on any other team)

• Candy Maldonado is the only batter named Candy ever plunked by Randy Johnson.

• Randy Johnson never hit a batter named Randy, but he did hit three batters in front of home plate umpire Randy Marsh: Geoff Jenkins, Jeromy Burnitz, Barry Bonds

• Randy Johnson won 303 games overall, but he won 78 games in which he hit at least one batter. The pitcher with next most wins in games in which Randy Johnson hit someone was Scott Kamieniecki, who won three such games. The following batters were plunked by Randy Johnson in games won by Scott Kamieniecki: Charlie Hayes, Jim Leyritz, Cal Ripken, Gerald Williams
  

• Randy Johnson also lost 47 games in which he hit a batter, but Bobby Ayala was the only other pitcher to lose 3 games in which the Big Unit hit a batter. These guys got hit by Randy Johnson in games that Bobby Ayala took the loss for: Will Clark, Wilton Guerrero, Luis Polonia
  

• Randy Johnson hit 5 batters in games in which he had 15 or more strikeouts: Scott Brosius,
  Nomar Garciaparra, Jim Leyritz, Rico Rossy, Mo Vaughn
  

• Johnson only hit one current member of the 3000 hit club, Cal Ripken.
  

• The following players were hit by a Randy Johnson pitch and have over 100 career HBPs. (Johnson never hit anyone who has broken the 200 plunk barrier so far)
  Andres Galarraga -177
  Jason Giambi -164
  Fernando Vina (twice) - 157
  Brady Anderson -154
  Chuck Knoblauch -139
  Larry Walker (3 times) - 138
  Damion Easley (3 times) - 132
  Scott Rolen (twice) - 112
  Luis Gonzalez -111
  Mo Vaughn (3 times) - 108
  Chase Utley -107
  Barry Bonds (twice) - 106
  

• David Wells and Callix Crabbe are the only batters who have never been hit by anyone but Randy Johnson. Both were batting for the Padres when Johnson delivered there only career HBP. (Crabbe spent 2009 in the Mariners farm system, so he could still come back to the majors to be plunked by someone else.)

• Johnson hit the Padres more often than any other team - the following batters were hit by Randy Johnson while batting for San Diego:
  Adrian Gonzalez (2), Justin Huber, Kevin Jarvis, Bubba Trammell, Ramon Vazquez, David Wells, Rondell White, Everth Cabrera, Brian Buchanan, Sean Burroughs, Mike Cameron, Callix Crabbe
  

• The following batters have been hit by a Randy Johnson pitch while Benito Santiago was the runner on 2nd base: Jeff Blauser, Reggie Sanders, J.T. Snow

• These batters were plunked by Randy Johnson in relief appearances:Mike Sweeney,
  Everth Cabrera. (Cabrera was plunk number 190, in Johnson's final game)
  

• These batters were hit by Randy Johnson with the bases loaded: Brandon Larson, Charlie Hayes, Junior Ortiz, Mike Kinkade, Ruben Mateo

• Johnson hit 29 different batters a total of 34 times while Dan Wilson was his catcher, and hit 31 different batters a total of 33 times with Dave Valle catching.
  

• Randy Johnson hit 4 different batters with last names at least 10 letters long, for a total of 5 plunks: Nomar Garciaparra, Mike Macfarlane, Pete Incaviglia (twice), Jim Eisenreich
  

• The following batters were hit by Randy Johnson while batting left handed with 2 outs in a day game: Luis Gonzalez, Mark Grace, Mike Greenwell, Shawn Green, John Olerud, Dave Roberts
  

• Aramis Ramirez is the only batter to get hit by Randy Johnson before reaching age 21.

• The following players were hit by Randy Johnson after they turned 40: Barry Bonds, Brian Downing, Gary Gaetti, Andres Galarraga, David Wells
  

• The following players were hit by Randy Johnson while they were 31 years old (the most common age of his targets): Rene Gonzales (three times while 31), Tim Hulett, Kevin Jarvis, Jim Leyritz, Candy Maldonado, Al Newman, John Russell, Mike Simms, Shannon Stewart, Fernando Vina, Mitch Webster, Rondell White, Eric Young, Luis Alicea, Brady Clark, Darnell Coles, Darin Erstad, Jason Giambi
  

• These batters were plunked by Randy Johnson after he turned 40:
  Reed Johnson (4), Barry Bonds (2), Alex Cora (2), Adrian Gonzalez (2), Luis Gonzalez, Nick Green, Jack Hannahan, Justin Huber, Aubrey Huff, Brandon Inge, Geoff Jenkins, Chris Coste, Callix Crabbe, Carl Crawford, Joe Crede, David DeJesus, Damion Easley, Darin Erstad, Joey Gathright, Jeromy Burnitz, Sean Burroughs, Mike Cameron, Brady Clark, Everth Cabrera, Brad Ausmus, Howie Kendrick, Adam Kennedy, Derrek Lee, Jose Lopez, Luis Matos, David Newhan, Josh Phelps, Ian Stewart, Shannon Stewart, Charles Thomas, Chase Utley, Larry Walker, David Wells, Brad Wilkerson
  

• These batters were plunked by Randy Johnson while he was 28 (his plunkiest year): Rene Gonzales (3 times), Jim Leyritz (twice), Pat Listach, Candy Maldonado, Al Newman, John Russell, Terry Shumpert, Lee Stevens, Craig Grebeck, Charlie Hayes, Pat Kelly, Roberto Kelly, Mark Lewis, Roberto Alomar, Sandy Alomar, Joe Carter
  
  

Obviously this is only a partial list of important facts about the career plunkings of Randy Johnson, so if there's something you really need to know that I've left out, just ask in the comments, and I can expand this post.

Well somebody has to care enough about defensive indifference to at least write down that it happened, even if the catchers don't care enough to stop a runner from taking a base. So, here are the catchers who chalked up the most defensive indifference plays in 2009:
Russell Martin (LAN) - 20
Yadier Molina (SLN) - 15
Jorge Posada (NYA) - 14
Jason Varitek (BOS) - 13
Brian McCann (ATL) - 11
A.J. Pierzynski (CHA) - 10
Jeff Mathis (ANA) - 9
Koyie Hill (CHN) - 9*
Paul Bako (PHI) - 7
Rod Barajas (TOR) - 7
Jason Kendall (MIL) - 7
Mike Napoli (ANA) - 7
Carlos Ruiz (PHI) - 7
Jarrod Saltalamacchia (TEX) - 7

*- one of Koyie Hill's 9 defensive indifference plays had two baserunners moving - making him the only catcher in 2009 to watch two runners he didn't care move to a new base.

Martin's 20 instances of defensive indifference are the most in a single season in the last 5 years. Jason Kendall had 17 defensive indifferences in 2005. Also, if I'm going to talk about defensive indifference any more it needs to have a shorter nickname - like "shrugs". As in, Kendall had 17 shrugs at catcher in 2005.

John Lackey has reportedly signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox, and that may or may not have something to do with the fact that John Lackey is the only Major League pitcher who has hit Derek Jeter with 4 pitches. He's faced Jeter just 54 times in the regular season, but they'll see a lot more of each other playing in the same division. Red Sox starter Josh Beckett faced Jeter 18 times last year, so if we can assume the Lackey will get a similar number of opportunities against Jeter and maintain his plunks per plate appearance rate, he'll be able to plunk Jeter 1.3 times. (Not that he'd be trying to hit him or anything...).
Lackey broke the Angels career record for hitting batters last year, with a total of 73.

In other plunk related player movement, Jason Kendall has signed with the Kansas City Royals, who no doubt want to capitalize on Kendall's quest to break the all time HBP record. Kendall needs to get hit 40 times to reach 288 plunks and pass Hughie Jenning's 287 career HBPs.

Arizona Fall League (finished play Nov. 21st)

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Daryl Jones (STL)	Surprise Rafters	4	109	0.037
Nevin Ashley (TB)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	4	83	0.048
Jose Tabata (PIT)	Scottsdale Scorpions	3	138	0.022
Grant Desme (OAK)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	3	134	0.022
Frederick Freeman	Peoria Saguaros (ATL)	3	55	0.055
Brandon Hicks	Peoria Saguaros	3	104	0.029

Dominican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Carlos Gomez	Leones del Escogido	5	55	0.091
Eugenio Velez	Estrellas de Oriente	3	91	0.033
Matt Carson (OAK)	Aguilas Cibaenas	3	58	0.052
Hector Luna	Aguilas Cibaenas	3	85	0.035
Luis Terrero	Aguilas Cibaenas	3	63	0.048

Mexican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Francisco Arias	Mayos de Navojoa	12	234	0.051
Ruben Rivera	Venados de Mazatlan	8	223	0.036
John Lindsey	Venados de Mazatlan	7	223	0.031
Abel Martinez	Mayos de Navojoa	6	171	0.035
Heber Gomez	Venados de Mazatlan	6	189	0.032
Matt Young (ATL)	Mayos de Navojoa	6	239	0.025
Carlos Sievers	Aguilas de Mexicali	6	134	0.045

Puerto Rican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Jorge Padilla	Lobos de Arecibo	8	82	0.098
Reggie Abercrombie	Leones de Ponce	4	78	0.051
Nate Schierholtz	Gigantes de Carolina	3	66	0.045
Raul Gonzalez	Leones de Ponce	3	74	0.041
Raul Casanova	Leones de Ponce	3	57	0.053

Venezuelan League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Max Ramirez (TEX*)	Tiburones de La Guaira	9	225	0.04
Cesar Suarez	Tiburones de La Guaira	7	190	0.037
Jon Jay (STL)	Leones del Caracas	7	156	0.045
Andres Blanco (CHC)	Navegantes del Magallanes	6	166	0.036
Ezequiel Carrera (SEA)	Navegantes del Magallanes	6	183	0.033
Dennys Abreu	Bravos de Margarita	6	121	0.05
Daniel Dorn (CIN)	Caribes de Anzoategui	5	65	0.077
Adam Heether (MIL)	Leones del Caracas	5	90	0.056
Luis Gonzalez	Caribes de Anzoategui	5	199	0.025
Brendan Katin (MIL)	Aguilas de Zulia	5	80	0.063
Ernesto Mejia (KC)	Aguilas de Zulia	5	181	0.028

*- Max Ramirez is rumored to be going to Boston in exchange for Mike Lowell. Clearly that whole deal is based on Ramirez's impressive HBP performance in Venezuala.

Labels: Winter ball

Kelly Shoppach was sent packing by the Cleveland Indians earlier this week, traded for a player to be plunked later to the Tampa Bay Rays. This is good news for Shoppach and his apparent love for being hit by a lot of pitches, since the Indians did not seem interested in giving him a lot of playing time, even after the Victor Martinez trade. Even if he doesn't get more playing time though, Shoppach should find more pitches to get hit by. In 2009, pitchers in the American League Central Division had the lowest plunk rate of any division in the league, at 1 hit batter per every 132.6 plate appearances. If we exclude Cleveland from that calculation, Shoppach's division opponents hit batters once every 130.5 plate appearances. But the American League East had the highest pitchers' plunk rate of any division in the majors, with a batter being hit by an AL East pitcher once every 106.5 plate appearances. Tampa Bay's pitchers were actually showing below average in the division, at plunking batters, because teams pitcher in the AL East who weren't pitching for the Rays hit a batter every 101.5 plate appearances. Based on 2009 numbers, Shoppach should be able to get hit by 28.6% more pitches in the same number of plate appearances. (Obviously plunk rates in 2010 will be a little different depending on player movement, and restructured pitching staffs, but the AL East has consistently been a prime place to get hit by pitches - AL East pitchers have had the highest plunk rate by division in 7 of the last 10 seasons, and have never been lower than third place among divisions.

Shoppach got hit 18 times to lead the AL in 2009. If he gets hit 28.6% more often, as indicated by 2009 plunk rates, he'll be in the neighborhood of 23 HBPs. The Ray's franchise record for plunks in a season is 14 by Johnny Gomes in 2005. That record could very likely change hands in 2010.

MVP voting results have been announced this week, but it's too easy to figure out the best players of a given season. The more interesting question is who were the most AVERAGE players.

For one, Mark Ellis of the A's. Ellis compiled a batting average of .262599 in 2009, which is just .000159 away from the Major League batting average of .262440. That's pretty average. Randy Winn came the next closest to being perfectly average on a league-wide level, batting .262081.

Splitting by American League vs National League, we can see that Jeremy Hermida had the most average batting average in the NL, with a .258741 compared to the NL average of .258789. That's almost ridiculously average - off by just .000048. In the American League, rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus batted .266666 to nearly match the AL average of .266555. Kosuke Fukudome was the 2nd most average batter in the NL with a .258517, and Jason Bay was 2nd most average in the AL at .267419.

But, some might argue that if we're going to give out a most average player award, it should be to the player who is most average within their own team - much like the MVP should be the most valuable player on his own team. By those standards you'd have to go for Nelson Cruz, who batted .259740 for the Rangers, while the Rangers batted .259862 as a team. In the National League, Chipper Jones took his role as the franchise player a step too far by exemplifying the teams batting average to nearly 3 decimal places. He batted .264344 compared to the Braves overall average of .263404. Surely the mark of a true team player, playing exactly at the level of the team.

Also, I know that many people aren't big fans of batting averages anymore and somehow think something like OPS is a better indicator of overall offense, or something, so just in case you need to know who the most average players by OPS are, I can do that. The Major League average OPS was .750683, and the closest player to matching that exactly was Mark DeRosa with .751824. The NL average OPS was .739322, and Jeremy Hermida once again came closest to that one with .739876. Michael Bourn was third closest to matching the NL average OPS with a .738138. In the AL, Franklin Gutierrez had an OPS of 0.739876, coming the closest to the average AL OPS of .763497. Juan Pierre was the best in the majors at matching his team's OPS, with a .757489 compared to the Dodgers' .757465. He was off by just .000024! Among AL teams, Maicer Izturis was the best at matching his team's OPS, with a .793555 compared to the team's .791526.


More importantly than any of those things, Ryan Howard was the most average, league wide, at getting hit by pitches. He took a plunk once every 117.17 plate appearance, while the league average was one plunk every 117.66 PAs. Kelly Johnson got hit the most avergely in the NL with a plunk every 115.33 PAs compared to the NL average of 115.077, while Aubrey Huff took 5 plunks in the AL at a rate of one every 119.4 PAs, compared to the American League plunk rate of one per 120.742 plate appearances. Andruw Jones got really close to the Rangers plunk rate, getting hit once every 165.5 plate appearances, which is right on pace with the one per 165.595
plunk rate of the rest of the team, but his teammate Hank Blalock also got hit once per 165 plate appearances and played in 41 more games than Jones. In the NL, Joe Thurston got hit once every 102.667 plate appearances, which is very close to the Cardinals average rate of one hbp per 101.115 plate appearances.

Arizona Fall League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Daryl Jones (STL)	Surprise Rafters	4	80	0.05
Grant Desme (OAK)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	2	94	0.021
Jose Tabata (PIT)	Scottsdale Scorpions	2	95	0.021
Nevin Ashley (TB)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	2	48	0.042
Chris Heisey (CIN)	Peoria Saguaros	2	76	0.026
Ruben Tejada (NYM)	Surprise Rafters	2	53	0.038
Frederick Freeman (ATL)	Peoria Saguaros	2	51	0.039

Dominican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Eugenio Velez (SF)	Estrellas de Oriente	2	24	0.083
Elian Herrera	Aguilas Cibaenas	2	28	0.071
Matt Carson (OAK)	Aguilas Cibaenas	2	38	0.053
Kevin Barker	Aguilas Cibaenas	2	39	0.051
Pablo Ozuna	Estrellas de Oriente	2	47	0.043

Mexican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Heber Gomez	Venados de Mazatlan	5	91	0.055
Abel Martinez	Mayos de Navojoa	4	106	0.038
Francisco Arias	Mayos de Navojoa	4	115	0.035
Ramon Orantes	Caneros de los Mochis	4	92	0.043
Ruben Rivera	Venados de Mazatlan	4	110	0.036
Brian Bixler (PIT)	Venados de Mazatlan	3	120	0.025
Javier Robles	Mayos de Navojoa	3	100	0.03
Carlos Sievers	Aguilas de Mexicali	3	83	0.036
Sergio Gastelum	Tomateros de Culiacan	3	75	0.04
Coby Smith (LAA)	Caneros de los Mochis	3	102	0.029
Said Gutierrez	Yaquis de Obregon	3	88	0.034
Daniel Fornes	Yaquis de Obregon	3	96	0.031
Flavio Romero	Yaquis de Obregon	3	120	0.025

Venezualan League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Jon Jay (STL)	Leones del Caracas	6	119	0.05
Brendan Katin (MIL)	Aguilas de Zulia	5	73	0.068
Adam Heether (MIL)	Leones del Caracas	5	90	0.056
Max Ramirez (TEX)	Tiburones de La Guaira	5	106	0.047
Daniel Dorn (CIN)	Caribes de Anzoategui	5	65	0.077
Cesar Suarez n	Tiburones de La Guaira	4	119	0.034
Ezequiel Carrera (SEA)	Navegantes del Magallanes	4	99	0.04
Dennys Abreu n	Bravos de Margarita	4	56	0.071
Jesus Merchan (CLE)	Navegantes del Magallanes	3	100	0.03
Carlos Leon n	Bravos de Margarita	3	40	0.075
Edwar Gonzalez (NYY)	Cardenales de Lara	3	59	0.051
Luis Bolivar (CIN)	Aguilas de Zulia	3	64	0.047
David Paisano (TEX)	Tiburones de La Guaira	3	50	0.06
Manuel Pina (KC)	Tiburones de La Guaira	3	15	0.2
Richard Hidalgo n	Navegantes del Magallanes	3	109	0.028
Luis Gonzalez	Caribes de Anzoategui	3	113	0.027

Labels: Winter ball