Plunk Everyone

It was a shocking day in the WBC yesterday - TWO Minnesota Twins players got hit by pitches. That's certainly shocking. AND, Pedro Martinez hit a batter from the Netherlands... that's not that shocking, except that he did it in a game that his Dominican Republic team lost to the Netherlands, knocking the Dominican Republic team out of the tournament. (Honestly, we should have seen this coming the day Alex Rodriguez said he'd play for them... even though he never actually played). Pedro Martinez hit Dutch batter Gene Kingsale in that game, and the Dominican's Miguel Tejada, also of the Astros, got hit by Netherlands pitcher Leon Boyd.

The Cuban team plunked Australia 3 times in a 5-4 victory. Ismel Jimenez threw two of those - at Ben Risinger, and Phillies prospect Brad Harman. Also, Cuban pitcher Danny Betancourt hit Twins prospect Luke Hughes.

Nick Punto was the other Twin to get plunked yesterday, playing for Italy, which now means Punto's WBC plunk total this year matches his Major League career total for HBPs - 1. He got hit by Ramon Ramirez of Venezuala. Also in that game, Italian pitcher Tiago De Silva hit Venezualan Cesar Izturis, of the Orioles. And, Enrique Gonzalez of Venezuala, who is also listed among the Non-Roster Invitees to the Boston Red Sox training camp, made a shrewd move to make that team - he plunked Italian batter Francisco Cervelli, who is a triple-A catcher for the Yankees.


Here's the report on pitch counts for all you people convinced that the WBC is going to somehow cause your favorite pitchers to melt down in mid-September:

MLB Team	Pitcher	WBC Team	Pitches	IPOuts	Rough Outings*
ARI	Travis Blackley	AUS	74	17	0
ARI	Tony Pena	DOM	22	6	0
ATL	Javier Vazquez	PUR	60	13	0
BOS	Fernando Cabrera	PUR	5	2	0
BOS	Enrique Gonzalez	VEN	61	12	0
BOS	Daisuke Matsuzaka	JPN	65	12	0
CHA	Matt Thornton	USA	7	3	0
CHN	Carlos Marmol	DOM	42	5	1
CIN	Johnny Cueto	DOM	71	14	0
CIN	Ramon Ramirez	VEN	59	9	0
CIN	Pedro Viola	DOM	13	3	0
CIN	Edinson Volquez	DOM	58	9	0
CLE	Rafael Perez	DOM	35	9	0
COL	Manny Corpas	PAN	30	6	0
COL	Jason Grilli	ITA	62	11	0
COL	Ubaldo Jimenez	DOM	65	12	0
DET	Armando Galarraga	VEN	64	12	0
DET	Fu-Te Ni	TPE	26	4	0
FLA	Christopher Leroux	CAN	34	5	0
FLA	Matt Lindstrom	USA	21	4	0
FLA	Rick VandenHurk	NED	72	10	0
HOU	LaTroy Hawkins	USA	12	3	0
HOU	Roy Oswalt	USA	65	11	0
KCA	Lenny DiNardo	ITA	14	0	0
KCA	Joakim Soria	MEX	11	3	0
LAA	Francisco Rodriguez	MEX	15	2	0
LAA	Scot Shields	USA	30	3	1
LAA	Rich Thompson	AUS	48	9	0
LAN	Jonathan Broxton	USA	18	3	0
MIL	Mark DiFelice	ITA	45	12	0
MIN	Luis Ayala	MEX	29	4	0
MIN	Jesse Crain	CAN	18	4	0
NYA	Damaso Marte	DOM	26	6	0
NYN	Elmer Dessens	MEX	68	18	0
NYN	Pedro Feliciano	PUR	20	4	0
NYN	Nelson Figueroa	PUR	32	8	0
NYN	Oliver Perez	MEX	63	6	1
NYN	J.J. Putz	USA	21	3	1
NYN	Francisco Rodriguez	VEN	17	3	0
OAK	Brad Ziegler	USA	21	3	1
PHI	J.C. Romero	PUR	16	4	0
PIT	David Davidson	CAN	17	3	0
PIT	John Grabow	USA	1	1	0
PIT	Ian Snell	PUR	50	12	0
SDN	Heath Bell	USA	19	3	0
SDN	Jake Peavy	USA	58	9	0
SEA	Felix Hernandez	VEN	61	12	0
SEA	Carlos Silva	VEN	58	12	0
SLN	Adam Ottavino	ITA	50	9	0
SLN	Dennys Reyes	MEX	21	4	0
TBA	J.P. Howell	USA	10	3	0
WAS	Joel Hanrahan	USA	29	5	0
WAS	Saul Rivera	PUR	11	3	0

*-Rough outings are my count of pitching appearance that averaged over 20 pitches per inning. This may or may not be an accurate measure of pitching appearances that were somewhat stressful for a pitcher - basically I made it up. But, the 2008 average was about 16 pitches per inning, so if a pitcher is breaking that 20 pitch mark, he might be working a little harder than normal. It also lines up nicely with a pitcher breaking the 100 pitch mark in 5 innings of work.

Labels: WBC