Plunk Everyone

HBPs of note: July 31, 2009

Yesterday was MLB's non-waiver trading deadline, which always takes over the headlines pushing out the important news of people getting hit by pitches, but this year there were a couple of trades with a big impact on HBP races or records. Jake Peavy was sent to the White Sox, even though he was just 2 hit batters away from breaking the Padres career franchise record. This just half a season after the Padres traded Khalil Greene when he was just 3 plunks away from the team record. In other trade new, Victor Martinez was traded from the Indians to the Red Sox, which is only significant because it should give more playing time to Kelly Shoppach. At the moment, Shoppach is tied for the league lead with 15 plunks, despite the fact that he's only played in 57 of the Indinans 103 games. If he can get some more plate appearances, he could really get hit by some pitches.

In actual HBP news, the Indian's Shin-Soo Choo got hit by a pitch thrown by Fu-Te Ni of the Tigers, which by some mathmatical coincidence was the 35th HBP to hit a Korean born player, and the 35th HBP thrown by a pitcher from Taiwan. That was Ni's first HBP, and he now holds the record for the shortest last name of a pitcher who has hit at least one batter. For Choo, it was his 11th of the season and the 18th of his career.

10 batters were hit by pitches yesterday, and 1 of them, though it's difficult to which, was the 1000th plunk of the year. This is the 12th consecutive season in which 1000 plunks were recorded by the end of July, but with only 1,007 HBPs, this year is the lowest end of July total since before that streak started. The last time MLB got through July without 1000 HBPs was 1997, which means this year has seen the lowest number of HBPs through July of any season since the league was expanded from 28 to 30 teams.

Labels: HBPs of note