Plunk Everyone

Most Plunkable Player Award - AL (most HBPs by a batter):

Kelly Shoppach (Indians) - 18 HBPs

Shoppach led all American League batters by getting hit by 18 pitches, and even more impressively he did that while only playing 89 games. He got hit once every 18.2 plate appearances, which means his rate of plunks per plate appearance was 57.6% better than overall leader Chase Utley's. If he had as many plate appearances as Utley, and maintained the same rate, Shoppach would have been hit around 37 times.


The Phil Knell Award - AL (most batters plunked by a pitcher):

Joba Chamberlain (Yankees) - 12 HBPs

Joba had only hit 3 batters coming into this year, so he was a surprise winner of the AL Phil Knell Award - named after the old American Association pitcher who once hit 54 batters in a season. Because pitching awards need to be named after someone, for some reason.

Mitch Williams Award - AL (most hit batters by a relief pitcher):

Jamey Wright (Royals) - 7
Brandon League (Blue Jays) - 7

Wright has made an impressive transition from hitting a lot of batters as a starter, to hitting a lot of batters as a reliever. He adds this award to the two seasons he led the NL in overall plunks. Brandon League tied for the American League lead in relief plunkings, but he led the Brandon League in overall plunks, beating Brandon McCarthy (3), Brandon Medders (3), Brandon Lyon (2) and Brandon Webb (1) in total hit batters.



Plunked Rookie of the Year - AL (most HBPs by a rookie):

Chris Getz (White Sox) - 6
Elvis Andrus (Rangers) - 6
Gordon Beckham (White Sox) - 6

The Gus Weyhig Award - AL (most plunks thrown by a rookie):

Ricky Romero (Blue Jays) - 10


Sandy Alomar Award - AL (most plate appearance without an HBP):

Orlando Cabrera (A's/Twins) - 708 plate appearance, 0 HBPs


The Chick Fraser Award - AL (most batters faced without hitting anyone)

Scott Richmond (Blue Jays) - 610 batters faced, none hit


Most Plunked Team - AL (the plunk pennant):

Cleveland Indians - 81 HBPs

I bit of a slow year after their modern record 103 plunks last season, but still 11 more than the next most plunked AL team

Least Plunked Team - AL:

Texas Rangers - 37 HBPs

Most Plunks Thrown - AL:

New York Yankees - 71 hit batters

Fewest Plunks Thrown - AL:

Oakland A's - 36 hit batters

American League All Plunk Team:

1st Base: Kevin Youkilis (Red Sox) - 11 HBPs at 1B, 16 overall (Teixeira also had 11 as a first basemen, but he had only 12 overall)

2nd Base: Placido Polanco (Tigers) - 9 HBP, all as 2B

Short Stop: Nick Green (Red Sox) - 8 HBP, all as SS

3rd Base: Brandon Inge (Tigers) - 17 HBP, all as 3B

Left Field: Carlos Quentin (White Sox) - 15 HBP, all as Left Fielder

Center Field: Marlon Byrd (Rangers) - 9 HBPs as Center Fielder, 10 overall

Right Field: Shin-Soo Choo (Indians) - 14 HBPS as Right Fielder, 17 overall

Catcher: Kelly Shoppach (Indians) - 17 HBPs as Catcher, 18 overall

Designated Hitter: David Ortiz (Red Sox) - 5 HBP, all as DH


2009 AL BACON Title:

Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) - .894 BACON

It may only have been Ichiro's 4th best season in total hits, with 225, but it was his most consistent season, with an .894 Bacon. Ichiro only had 68 at-bats in games in which he didn't have a hit. He batted .352 overall, and .394 in games in which he had at least one hit. When studies of Bacon get further back into baseball history, this will stand out as one of the best seasons ever. Ichiro's prior best season Bacon was in his 2001 season, when he had a .883.

2009 AL BACON x HBP Title:

Shin-Soo Choo (Indians) - 12.16

An impressive year for Choo in a stat that looks like fun, but doesn't make a lot of sense. It might show that Choo balanced the two skills of getting hit by a lot of pitches, and getting hits consistently from day to day.

2009 AL BACON x Hits Title:

Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) - 201.06

Most Swings - AL (not including bunt attempts):

Aaron Hill - 1,293 swings

Most Swings that Missed - AL (not including bunt attempts):

Carlos Pena - 346 whiffs


Save a Tree award - AL (most plate appearances in which the batter did not risk damaging his bat by swinging it, not including intentional walks... or, most plate appearances with 0 swings):

Marco Scutaro - 78 swingless plate appearance. If only MLB kept stats on broken bats, we could calculate how many trees he save by just standing and watching pitches in those 78 plate appearances.

Most Foul Balls - AL

Brian Roberts - 574 foul balls

Best Contact PCT - AL

Marco Scutaro - 93.7% (Scutaro edged Placido Polanco 93.67% to 93.61%)

Fastest recorded plunk Received - AL

Paul Konerko (White Sox) - 98.2 MPH thrown by Daniel Bard (Red Sox) on August 24th

Fastest recorded plunk Thrown - AL

Daniel Bard (Red Sox) - 99.1 MPH thrown at Raul Ibanez (Phillies) on June 12th

Teen Wolf Award - AL (Most Home Runs on dates of full moons)

Grady Sizemore (Indians) - 4

(This would have been an HBP stat, but Teen Wolf seemed like a ball hog on the basketball court, which implies he'd have been more inclined to try to hit solo homers all day rather than help his team with an HBP)

Most plunks by day of the Week - AL

Sunday - Jason Bay (BOS), Adrian Beltre (SEA), Russell Branyan (SEA), Kelly Shoppach (CLE), - 4
Monday - Adam Jones (BAL) - 3
Tuesday - Kevin Youkilis (BOS) - 4
Wednesday - Gerald Laird (DET), Carlos Quentin (CHW) - 4
Thursday - Shin-Soo Choo (CLE) - 4
Friday - Brandon Inge (DET) - 5
Saturday - Carlos Quentin (CHW), Paul Konerko (CHW), Kevin Youkilis (BOS) - 5

Most plunks against a single team - AL

Brandon Inge - 6 plunks vs the Minnesota Twins, not counting the one that he didn't get in the playoff game.

Most plunks against pitchers from Canada - AL

Carlos Quentin - 3