Plunk Everyone

Obviously, the idea of a fantasy baseball league where the only players chosen were pitchers and the only stats tracked were hit batters while facing the New York Yankees is completely insane, and I don't know anyone who would participate in such a league, much less run one... but... if you were in such a league, you'd be feeling pretty lucky right now if you drafted Daniel Cabrera. Daniel Cabrera has hit 5 Yankees - Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez twice each, and Derek Jeter. You will note, however, that he has not plunked Melky Cabrera. Not just this season, but ever. He's never plunked Orlando, Miguel or Asdrubel Cabrera either.

It's not just the Cabreras either - pitchers seem to have some reluctance to plunk a batter with the same last name as the themselves. No pitcher in 2008 has hit a batter with the same last name as him, though a batter has faced a pitcher with the same last name in 93 plate appearances this year. No one did it in 2007 either, in 124 same-name plate appearances. The last time a pitcher plunked a batter with the same last name was just over 2 years ago, on August 22, 2006 when Josh Johnson hit Nick Johnson. In the past 20 seasons (1989 through 2008) There have been just 28 incidents of batters getting hit by pitches thrown by pitchers with the same last name, and one fourth of them were Johnsons plunking Johnsons. Randy and Josh Johnson combined to hit Nick and Reed Johnson 7 times. Brian, Mitch and Woody Williams plunked Matt and Gerald Willaims 4 times, and Pedro, Ramon and Dennis Martinez hit Edgar and Dave Martinez a total of 4 times as well.
Here's the chart:

Last name	Pitchers	Batters	Total HBP
Johnson	Randy, Josh	Reed, Nick	7
Williams	Mitch, Woody, Brian	Matt, Gerald	4
Martinez	Pedro, Ramon, Dennis	Edgar, Dave	4
Gonzalez	Geremi	Juan, Alex	3
Young	Chris, Anthony	Dmitri, Eric	2
Wilson	Paul	Craig	1
Lopez	Aquilino	Luis	1
Hamilton	Joey	Darryl	1
Finley	Chuck	Steve	1
Gibson	Paul	Kirk	1
Redman	Mark	Tike	1
Smith	Bryn	Lonnie	1
Soriano	Rafael	Alfonso	1

For batters, getting hit by a pitcher with the same first name as you is much more likely. That's happened 231 times, including 6 this season. Pitchers named Mike seem to have taken particular pleasure in plunking batters named Mike with a total of 58 since 1989. That's well ahead of the next closest names, Jeff (17) and Mark (16). In the past 20 seasons, 25.1% of incidents involving a batter getting plunked by a pitcher with the same first name have been Mikes hitting Mikes, and this started long before ESPN Radio began airing Mike and Mike in the Morning. However, no Mikes have plunked any other Mikes in 2008. Here's the full list of first names that have plunked themselves since 1989: Mike - 58, Jeff - 17, Mark - 16, John - 13, Jason - 11, Jose - 7, Matt - 7, Kevin - 7, Brian - 7, Chris - 6, Scott - 6, Tim - 6, Ryan - 6, David - 5, Carlos - 4, Aaron - 4, Joe - 4, Brad - 3, Greg - 3, Todd - 3, Tom - 2, Steve - 2, Paul - 2, Miguel - 2, Chad - 2, Charlie - 2, Eric - 2, Dave - 2, A.J. - 1, Darren - 1, Felipe - 1, Frank - 1, Doug - 1, Brandon - 1, Bill - 1, Orlando - 1, Pat - 1, Larry - 1, Jorge - 1, Josh - 1, Juan - 1, Jay - 1, Jim - 1, Ramon - 1, Rick - 1, Ricky - 1, Shane - 1, Shawn - 1, Tony - 1, Travis - 1


Going back to 1960, there hasn't been a pitcher who plunked a batter with the same first AND last name, though if Chris Young of the Padres could hit Chris Young of the Diamondbacks, we could take care of that. Unfortunately they don't play each other again this season.


NOTE: For first names, we're only working with the first names each player most commonly went by, or are the one they're listed under on Baseball-reference.com or Retrosheet.org. Bobs hitting Roberts or Michaels hitting Mikes or Charlies hitting Chazs don't count.

Labels: Daniel Cabrera