Plunk Everyone

As you may have noticed, Jason Giambi is leading the major leagues in getting hit by pitches this summer, and he's also led the group of players whose last name starts with G to the to of the HBP charts by last initial this season. Players filed under G have been hit 89 times this season, with the letter B in second place at 80 plunks. If the Gs hold on to the lead, it will break a 9 season streak of B players being plunked the most. The players whose last names start with B have also been hit by the most pitches in 26 of the last 28 seasons. This would be the first season ever in which G was the most plunked last initial. It's worth noting in this seasons race that there have been 36 players with the last initial B who have been plunked in 2008, while the Gs have only had 24 - so the Bs have the numbers advantage but the Gs are getting it done with hustle. (Holding still while a pitch hits you is hustle, right?)

In the all time standings, the last initial B is second only to M in total HBPs, while G is a distant 6th. Despite the best efforts this year of Chase Utley and Carlos Quentin, U and Q still rank at the bottom (though they're both still ahead of X, because no one with a last name beginning with X has ever played in the majors). It's possible that by the time Utley and Quentin are done, they might have over half of the HBPs ever recorded by players with there last initial.



On a related note, April 5th of this year was an important day for batters named Mike. Mike Sweeney got hit by a pitch a CC Sabathia pitch, which moved players named Mike into the top spot on the list of most plunked first names. Mikes took over the lead from Bills, who had held the top spot since 1898. 110 years of Bills holding the top spot in the HBP standings were ended with that one pitch. As of this morning, Mikes had been hit 2054 times to 2041 by Bills. Mikes have been hit 17 times this season to just 3 by Bills (all by Bill Hall), but it's Jasons (38) who are leading the league this season, with Carlos (34) and Ryan (32) close behind them. Ryan was the leading name in getting hit by pitches in the 2007 season, and players named Jason accumulated the most plunkings in 4 straight seasons prior to that. Mikes haven't led the league since 2002, but that was the end of a stretch when Mikes were the leader in 15 of 16 seasons.

The name Joe is third all-time, and they're 17 plunks away from 2000.


(Note: all these all-time major league numbers by names and initials include stats from old timey leagues like the Federal League and the American Association, and whatever else Retrosheet.org tends to include as major leagues, and has stats available for)