Plunk Everyone

With the Olympics going on, I thought it might be a good idea to see which batters get hit by the most pitches, and which pitchers hit the most batters, broken down by the weight classes used in the Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling events. Because hey, is it really fair to compare a target the size of Prince Fielder or Adam Dunn to the Eckstein's and Pedroia's of the world?

Here's the top 5 batters and pitchers in HBP and hit batters, grouped by Olympic wrestling weight class:

Weight Class	Batters	Pitchers
66kg	(no batters)	Juan Cruz (ARI) - 3 Danny Herrera (CIN) - 0
74kg	Willy Taveras (COL) - 3 Eugenio Velez (SF) - 1	Wandy Rodriguez (HOU) - 5 Saul Rivera (WSH) - 2 Casey Fossum (DET) - 2 Wesley Wright (HOU) - 2 Jesse Carlson (TOR) - 1 Freddy Dolsi (DET) - 1 Alberto Arias (COL) - 1
84kg	Chase Utley (PHI) - 19 Reed Johnson (CHC) - 11 Nate McLouth (PIT) - 10 David Eckstein (TOR) - 8 Augie Ojeda (ARI) - 7 Jamey Carroll (CLE) - 7 Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS) - 7	Aaron Laffey (CLE) - 9 Johnny Cueto (CIN) - 9 Roy Oswalt (HOU) - 7 Shaun Marcum (TOR) - 7 Jamie Moyer (PHI) - 6 Carlos Marmol (CHC) - 6
96kg	Kevin Kouzmanoff (SD) - 12 Jason Kendall (MIL) - 11 Aaron Rowand (SF) - 11 Manny Ramirez (LAD) - 10 Lastings Milledge (WSH) - 10	Kyle Kendrick (PHI) - 12 Randy Wolf (HOU) - 11 Edinson Volquez (CIN) - 11 Justin Verlander (DET) - 10 Kenny Rogers (DET) - 9 Tim Wakefield (BOS) - 9 Dave Bush (MIL) - 9
120kg	Carlos Quentin (CWS) - 20 Jason Giambi (NYY) - 16 Rickie Weeks (MIL) - 13 Ryan Garko (CLE) - 13 Chris Iannetta (COL) - 11	Micah Owings (ARI) - 12 Roy Halladay (TOR) - 11 Oliver Perez (NYM) - 11 James Shields (TB) - 10 Vicente Padilla (TEX) - 9 Aaron Heilman (NYM) - 9 Brandon Webb (ARI) - 9 Dana Eveland (OAK) - 9 Mike Pelfrey (NYM) - 9
THFO*	Prince Fielder (MIL) - 10 Carlos Delgado (NYM) - 6 Adam Dunn (ARI) - 6 Frank Thomas (OAK) - 2	Daniel Cabrera (BAL) - 17 C.C. Sabathia (MIL) - 5 Jonathan Broxton (LAD) - 2 Tyler Walker (SF) - 1 Bobby Jenks (CWS) - 1 Jeff Niemann (TB) - 1

* - To Heavy for the Olympics


Most of the getting hit by pitches in the major leagues, among batters, occurs in the 96 kilogram weight class, but the 331 batters who are above the 96kg get hit more frequently than the rest, at once per 100 plate appearances. Batters less than or equal to 96 kilograms get hit once per 121 PAs.

Weight Class	HBP	Total Batters	PA	HBP/PA
74kg	4	9	803	0.0050
84kg	201	153	22951	0.0088
96kg	540	412	67048	0.0081
120kg	512	322	51750	0.0099
THFO	24	9	1887	0.0127

And on the pitching side, it just looks like the 96 and 120 kg categories are where most of the action is:

Weight Class	Hit batters	Total Pitchers	Batters Faced	HB/Batters Faced
66kg	3	2	167	0.0180
74kg	14	7	1482	0.0094
84kg	149	73	16940	0.0088
96kg	544	241	60438	0.0090
120kg	544	262	62415	0.0087
THFO	27	9	2997	0.0090

Just in case you think this is a great idea and think all stats should be tracked by Olympic wrestling weight classes, here are the Major League leaders by weight class of a few other popular offensive stats:

Total Hits:
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - 103
84kg - Dustin Pedroia (BOS) - 165
96kg - Ian Kinsler (TEX) - 165
120kg - Raul Ibanez (SEA) - 147
THFO - Prince Fielder (MIL) - 124

Home Runs:
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - 1
84kg - Chase Utley (PHI) - 30
96kg - Ryan Braun (MIL) - 31
120kg - Carlos Quentin (CWS) - 35
THFO - Adam Dunn (ARI) - 32

Batting Average (300 AB minimum):
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - .261
84kg - Dustin Pedroia (BOS) - .320
96kg - Chipper Jones (ATL) - .363
120kg - Albert Pujols (STL) - .348
THFO - Prince Fielder (MIL) - .273

On-Base Percent (OBP) (300 AB minimum):
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - .313
84kg - Ryan Theriot (CHC) - .396
96kg - Chipper Jones (ATL) - .460
120kg - Albert Pujols (STL) - .459
THFO - Adam Dunn (ARI) - .378

Slugging Pct (300 AB minimum):
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - .312
84kg - Alfonso Soriano (CHC) - .561
96kg - Ryan Braun (MIL) - .589
120kg - Albert Pujols (STL) - .617
THFO - Adam Dunn (ARI) - .520

On-base plus Slugging (OPS) (300 AB minimum):
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - .625
84kg - Chase Utley (PHI) - .926
96kg - Chipper Jones (ATL) - 1.037
120kg - Albert Pujols (STL) - 1.076
THFO - Adam Dunn (ARI) - .898

Total foul balls hit:
74kg - Willy Taveras (COL) - 242
84kg - Akinori Iwamura (TB) - 409
96kg - Jorge Cantu (FLA) - 428
120kg - Josh Hamilton (TEX) - 437
THFO - Carlos Delgado (NYM) - 376

If Ichiro just lost 3.2 kilograms off his listed weight, he could dominate that 74kg weight class. Perhaps someone should talk to him about that in the off-season.

Note: weights listed for weight classes are the maximum allowable weight, so the 84 kilogram class is anyone over 74kg, but less than or equal to 84kg. Also, the Olympic Wrestling competition has 55 and 60kg weight classes, but nobody in Major League Baseball is that small, - at least not this season.