Plunk Everyone

Since Chase Utley entered the major leagues in 2003, three other players have been hit by more pitches than him - Jason Kendall with 103, Jason Giambi with 98 and Reed Johnson with 95. But, Utley didn't start his career as a plunk target the way Johnson and Kendall did, and the way Carlos Quintin has more recently. Utley's first three seasons only included only 17 HBPs, but in 2006 Aaron Rowand showed up. The Phillies traded away Jim Thome in November of 2005, and aquired Rowand who was coming off a 21 HBP season and a championship with the White Sox. In 2005, the Phillies got hit by 56 pitches as a team, but in 2006, with the addition of Rowand, their plunk production ballooned up to 96, their best season ever. Rowand led the team with 18 plunks that year, and Utley was close behind with 14. The following year, Rowand got hit 19 times, but Utley took up the challenge and got hit 25 times.
Since the beginning of 2006, Chase Utley has been hit 19 times more than the next most plunked player in the Majors - Aaron Rowand. Utley has been hit 72 times since he first teamed up with Rowand, and Rowand has been hit 53 times. It seems likely that it was Rowand who taught the art of the plunk to Chase Utley. (Rowand on the other hand, probably learned to get hit by pitches from one of Carl Everett's multiple personalities - one of which was good enough to get hit by 87 pitches, although some of the other personalities were so filled with anger it was difficult for him to get hit by more without flying into fits of white hot rage of the sort that draws high pressure weather systems toward his head and rains out games. And causes headbutts to umpires. But anyway, Rowand played with Everett in Chicago, and Carl Everett played in Houston in 1998 and 1999 with Craig Biggio, the modern master of the plunk. Everett had his first double-digit plunk year in Houston in '99. Biggio though, learned the art from teammate Jeff Bagwell, who led the National League in plunks in his rookie year in 1991, several years before Biggio mastered the art. Bagwell, meanwhile, very likely watched the Red Sox growing up in Connecticut, and saw Don Baylor get plunked 35 times in 1986, helping the Sox go to the ill-fated World Series that year. So you see how it's all connected.)

Utley's favorite inning to get hit by a pitch in is the 7th, with 15 HBPs there, and his favorite day of the week to get plunked is appears to be Tuesday so far, with 16.

Plunks by inning: 1st - 14 2nd - 6 3rd - 7 4th - 8 5th - 9 6th - 10 7th - 15 8th - 9 9th - 8 10th - 2 16th - 1

Plunks by weekday: Sunday - 10 Monday - 13 Tuesday - 16 Wednesday - 14 Thursday - 7 Friday - 14 Saturday - 15

Since the beginning of 2003, the Phillies have a .602 win percentage when Chase Utley gets hit by a pitch, and only a .534 win percentage when he doesn't (that includes games he didn't play in). He's scored runs after reaching base on a plunk 33 times, and he's driven in 2 runs on plunks.

Utley broke the Phillies single season HBP record in 2007 with 25 plunks, and broke his own record again in 2008 with 27. He also holds the Citizens Bank Park record with 37. All but one of his plunks have come while playing 2nd base, but he did get plunked once as a pinch-hitter.

48 of Utley's 89 HBPs have been thrown by division opponents, with the Braves and Nationals leading with 13 each, and the Mets and Marlins close behind with 11. Tim Hudson his hit Utley the most, with a total of 4. Interestingly Jung Keun Bong, who had an excellent WBC for Korea this year, had a career Major League total of 2 hit batters - both in one game against Chase Utley. The full list is here.

Labels: Chase Utley