Plunk Everyone

HBPs of Note: July 21, 2009

It was a busy day for HBPs in the major leagues yesterday with 14 batters getting plunked. Manny Ramirez was the only one who did it wrong, taking one off the hand and being forced out of the game. He didn't break anything, but he's listed as day to day. That was the 98th of Manny's career, and was contributed by Homer Bailey.

Jose Guillen got hit by a pitch for the 131st time in his career, but remains in 36th place on the all-time list. He's 1 plunk behind Damion Easley, David Eckstein and Steve Brodie. Number 131 for Guillen was thrown by Ervin Santana, and ws the 40th of Santana's career. Also in that Royals-Angels game, David DeJesus got hit for the 37th time at Kauffman Stadium, which leaves him just 7 plunks away from the park record. He's been hit 63 times overall.

Jason LaRue didn't like having his career total tied by Aaron Rowand on Monday, so he got hit by his 104th pitch moving up with Miguel Tejada and Mark Grudzielanek into a tie for 60th place.

Reed Johnson got his 97th HBP, with Chase Utley looking on in Philadelphia. The two are tied again on the all time list, and perhaps locked in a race with Manny Ramirez to see who becomes the next batter to cross the 100 HBPs milestone. Johnson and Utley both started playing in the Majors in 2003, and while Utley has been accelerating his HBP pace for the past few years, Johnson has been slowing down as he's become more of a role-player with the Cubs. Johnson is the only player with an active streak of 6 consecutive years with 10 or more plunks, but he's only up to 5 this season. Aaron Rowand his been plunked in the double figures in 5 consecutive years.

Carlos Quentin got his 9th plunk of the season yesterday, after going unplunked since May 9th. He missed 47 games due to injury, but he's jumped right back in to the HBP race and will likely make a push toward the top of the list by the end of the year, if he can keep healthy.

And, Evan Longoria had an HBP which wasn't significant in HBP terms, but it did put him on base in the top of the 9th inning so he could score the go-ahead run, which turned out to be the game winner when the White Sox didn't come back in the bottom of the inning.

Aramis Ramirez got his 70th career HBP, Oliver Perez threw his 50th, and Randy Wolf threw career plunk number 70.

Labels: Carlos Quentin, HBPs of note