Plunk Everyone

Football coaches and football broadcasters love to point out the stats surrounding turnovers, and how much more likely a team is to win when they turn over the ball less often than their opponent. Well, in baseball this year, the team that gets hit by the most pitches wins 58.9% of games. That's pretty good, but certain players are really good at improving their team's chances of winning when they get hit by pitches. The best this year has been Yunel Escobar. The Atlanta Braves are 9-0 when Yunel Escobar gets hit by a pitch. That seems like something they might want to know.

Among batters with 10 or more HBPs this season, Shin-Soo Choo has increases his team's win percentage the most when he gets hit by a pitch. The Indians are 12-4 when he gets hit by a pitch, for a .750 win pct, but when he doesn't get plunked they're a .374 team. Clint Barmes has the best win percentage in his games with at least one HBP, at .900. But the Rockies are still 79-67 for a .541 win percentage when Barmes doesn't get hit, so he hasn't improve his team's chance with a plunk quite as much as Choo has. But still, if you want to win a game against the Rockies, plunking Clint Barmes appears to be a bad idea.

On the other end of the scale, the Dodgers seem to have trouble when a couple of their players get plunked. They've won at a .592 clip this season, but when Andre Ethier gets hit, they've won 5 and lost 8. When Russel Martin gets hit, they've won only 45.5% of their games. If Ethier had just stayed out of the way of all pitches, and the team had won their games at their rate during non-Ethier-plunk games all year, they'd have 3 more wins. Aside from those two Dodgers, Kelly Shoppach, Jason Kendall and Josh Willingham are the only three players with at least 10 HBPs whose teams do worse when they take one for the team. Kendall's Brewers are .461 when he gets hit and .500 when he doesn't. Willingham's Nationals are .300 when he gets hit, and .348 when he doesn't. Making the Nationals lose more is no easy feat. Shoppach's Indians win 40% of the time when he gets hit, but when he doesn't get plunked they're a .414 team.

Here are all this years players with 10 or more plunks, and how their team does in games when they get plunked:

Batter	HBP	Team Record when batter has at least one HBP	Team Record when batter doesn't get hit	Difference
Shin-Soo Choo (CLE)	16	12-4 (.750)	52-87 (.374)	+.376
Marlon Byrd (TEX)	10	8-1 (.889)	77-69 (.527)	+.361
Clint Barmes (COL)	10	9-1 (.900)	79-67 (.541)	+.359
Aaron Rowand (SF)	13	11-2 (.846)	71-71 (.500)	+.346
Paul Konerko (CWS)	10	6-3 (.667)	69-78 (.469)	+.197
Brandon Inge (DET)	17	11-5 (.688)	71-67 (.514)	+.173
Kevin Youkilis (BOS)	16	11-4 (.733)	78-59 (.569)	+.164
Kevin Kouzmanoff (SD)	10	6-4 (.600)	66-80 (.452)	+.148
Milton Bradley (CHC)	11	7-4 (.636)	72-70 (.507)	+.129
Matt Diaz (ATL)	13	8-4 (.667)	77-66 (.538)	+.128
Carlos Quentin (CWS)	13	7-5 (.583)	68-76 (.472)	+.111
Ryan Garko (CLE)	10	5-5 (.500)	59-86 (.407)	+.093
Chase Utley (PHI)	24	15-8 (.652)	74-57 (.565)	+.087
Miguel Tejada (HOU)	11	6-5 (.545)	67-78 (.462)	+.083
Mark Teixeira (NYY)	11	7-3 (.700)	94-53 (.639)	+.061
Chris Iannetta (COL)	10	6-4 (.600)	82-64 (.562)	+.038
Ryan Braun (MIL)	12	6-6 (.500)	71-72 (.497)	+.003
Kelly Shoppach (CLE)	18	6-9 (.400)	58-82 (.414)	-.014
Jason Kendall (MIL)	16	6-7 (.462)	71-71 (.500)	-.038
Josh Willingham (WSH)	12	3-7 (.300)	49-92 (.348)	-.048
Russell Martin (LAD)	11	5-6 (.455)	88-58 (.603)	-.148
Andre Ethier (LAD)	13	5-8 (.385)	88-56 (.611)	-.226

As mentioned above, Yunel Escobar has the most wins for a player who hasn't lost a game he's been plunked in. He's 9-0 when he gets hit. Kurt Suzuki has the next most plunks among the undefeated, with 7. Oakland is 7-0 when Suzuki gets plunked. The Phillies are 6-0 when Ryan Howard gets an HBP and the Rangers have not lost any of the 6 games in which Ian Kinsler has been plunked. Florida is 5-0 when John Baker gets hit by a pitch, and the Angels are 5-0 when Erick Aybar registers an HBP.

The most anyone has been hit this season without winning a game is 5 times, by Jonny Gomes. The Reds are 0-5 when Gomes gets plunked. The Indians are 0-4 when Grady Sizemore has been hit, and the Yankees playoff opponents might be interested to hear that the Yankees have lost all four games in which Hideki Matsui has been plunked.