Plunk Everyone

Last season, the Detroit Tigers hit the Cleveland Indians with 21 pitches, but it looks like they just couldn't wait to get 2009 started. Detroit's Amando Galarraga, pitching for Venezuala, hit Mark DeRosa of the US and the Cleveland Indians in the 2nd inning of yesterday's WBC game. Galarraga hit 3 Indians last season, but DeRosa was with the Cubs then. Welcome to the Indians, Mark.
Keeping with the Indians theme, Shin-Soo Choo collected his 2nd HBP of the WBC yesterday, thrown by Quoqiang Sun of China. That makes the Indian's outfielder the HBP leader in the WBC. Korea got hit 3 times in all by the pitching staff from China, with Bum Ho Lee getting plunked by Dawei Zhu and Taek-Keun Lee getting hit by Kai Liu.

That wasn't the only 3 plunk game yesterday though - Mexico plunked Australie 3 times as well. Oliver Perez of the Mets, pitching for Mexico hit Australia's Brett Roneberg. Brad Harman of the Phillies got hit by Pablo Ortega, and Justin Huber got hit by Francisco Rodriguez - that's the not the Mets Francisco Rodriguez, but the Angels back-up Francisco Rodriguez. Because they had a spare.

Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto, who was last year's rookie leader in plunks, hit 2 batters pitching for his native Dominican Republic. He hit Ruben Rivera and Luis Durango of Panama.

Rounding out yesterday's big day of WBC plunkings, Alfredo Depaigne of Cuba got hit by Gavin Jeffries of South Africa.



Here's the WBC to date pitch counts for guys on MLB spring training rosters (including some Non-Roster invitees)

MLB Team	Pitcher	WBC Team	Pitches	IPOuts	Rough Outings*
ARI	Tony Pena	DOM	14	3	0
ATL	Javier Vazquez	PUR	60	13	0
BOS	Daisuke Matsuzaka	JPN	65	12	0
CHA	Matt Thornton	USA	7	3	0
CHN	Carlos Marmol	DOM	16	3	0
CIN	Johnny Cueto	DOM	71	14	0
CIN	Pedro Viola	DOM	13	3	0
CIN	Edinson Volquez	DOM	58	9	0
CLE	Rafael Perez	DOM	21	6	0
COL	Manny Corpas	PAN	30	6	0
COL	Jason Grilli	ITA	18	1	0
DET	Armando Galarraga	VEN	64	12	0
DET	Fu-Te Ni	TPE	26	4	0
FLA	Christopher Leroux	CAN	4	2	0
FLA	Matt Lindstrom	USA	21	4	0
HOU	LaTroy Hawkins	USA	12	3	0
HOU	Roy Oswalt	USA	65	11	0
KCA	Lenny DiNardo	ITA	14	0	0
LAA	Francisco Rodriguez	MEX	15	2	0
LAA	Scot Shields	USA	30	3	1
LAA	Rich Thompson	AUS	33	6	0
LAN	Jonathan Broxton	USA	18	3	0
MIL	Mark DiFelice	ITA	45	12	0
NYA	Damaso Marte	DOM	13	3	0
NYN	Nelson Figueroa	PUR	32	8	0
NYN	Oliver Perez	MEX	63	6	1
NYN	J.J. Putz	USA	21	3	1
OAK	Brad Ziegler	USA	21	3	1
PIT	David Davidson	CAN	17	3	0
PIT	John Grabow	USA	1	1	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	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 un-scientific count of games in which a pitcher threw more than 20 pitches per inning. The 2008 MLB average was about 16 pitches per inning, so if a pitcher is getting over 20, they might be working a little harder than normal. Of course, it might not matter at all, but in 2006 a lot of people seemed to be convinced that pitching in the WBC ruined their favorite teams pitchers for the regular season. Then again, maybe it doesn't make a difference and there are enough ups and downs of pitching performance from season to season that it was just a coincidence and people blamed the WBC for no good reason.

Labels: WBC