Plunk Everyone

HBPs of Note: June 28, 2009

There were 17 plunks in yesterday’s batch of major league baseball games, making it the 2nd plunkiest day of the year. Jamie Moyer‘s plunking of Scott Rolen wasn’t just Moyer’s 135th plunk thrown and Rolen’s 109th plunk received, it was also the 4,500th thrown in Phillies franchise history. They’re the first franchise to reach that total – although it may not be perfectly accurate because plunks weren’t tracked very well on the pitching side in the early years of baseball. The Tigers are the next closest team with 4,360 known plunkings thrown in team history.

On the other hand, plunks have been tracked accurately for the past 17 seasons, so we can be sure that Andrew Miller’s plunking of Ben Zobrist was the 900th thrown by the Florida Marlins. Also in that game, JP Howell hit Cody Ross, which was the 19th career plunk for both of them.

HBPs or note: June 27, 2009

There were 4,394 pitches thrown in the fifteen Major League Baseball games played yesterday, but only 5 of those pitches hit a batter. The one that Alfredo Figaro threw that hit Miguel Tejada was Tejada’s 102nd, but it was also the 600th plunk in Minute Maid Park history. Tejada has collected 1% of those, but he’s still 50 plunks behind park record holder Craig Biggio, who was hit 56 times there. Lance Berkman is the active leader with 33 plunks at Minute Maid.

Paul Konerko got plunked for the 70th time in his career yesterday.

HBPs of Note: June 26, 2009

Russell Martin of the Dodgers was hit by a pitch thrown by Roy Corcoran yesterday, giving Martin his 20th career HBP. But more importantly, Martin’s plunk was the 1000th in major league history recorded by a player born in Canada. Congratulations, Canada, on your 1000th Major League plunk. Now, many politicians might plan to use this moment to serve their own interest by scaring Americans into believing that Canadians are sneaking across the border to take HBPs from hard working American baseball players but he truth of the matter is that Canadians have been getting hit by major league pitches for as long as there have been HBPs recorded. 14 plunks were recorded by Canadians in the year 1884, and from then to 1920, Canadians were the 2nd most plunked nationality, trailing Americans and just ahead of the Irish. But no Irish player has been plunked since the year 1918, while the Canadians have stuck around and gotten plunked another 612 times since that year. I guess the Irish all switched to Hockey or something. From 1920 to 1994, only 3 Canadians per year were plunked, and at the height of the little-talked-about US/Canadian cold war between 1952 and 1961, there were NO Candadians plunked in the Majors. But then NAFTA came into effect in 1994, and every full season since then has seen at least 10 plunks go to Canadian batters. Canadian plunks peaked in 2004 with 43, and Larry Walker holds the single season and career Canadian records with 14 plunks in 1995, 1997 and 2001, and 138 in all. So anyway – this is an event to be celebrate, not used in some crazy political scheme to build a border wall to keep out our neighbors from the north.

Mark Teixeira also got plunked yesterday, and that was the 1400th by someone born in Maryland. It was also his 60th. Teixeira has been hit 7 times this season, so he’s on pace to break his career high of 14 set in his rookie season in 2003.

HBPs of note: June 25, 2009

Before last night, Clayton Richard had faced 472 major league batters without hitting anyone, but he made up for lost time last night by hitting 3 in one game. He’s the 4th pitcher to throw a three plunk game this year. He hit Russell Martin, Juan Pierre (his 64th) and Mitch Jones.

Melvin Mora got his 104th HBP, which also happened to be the 1600th to be recorded by someone born in 1972. Sean West threw that one.

John Smoltz threw his 55th career plunk, and his first since August 19, 2007. He hit Nick Johnson for his 61st. Johnson extended his Nationals Park record to 9 HBPs.

Alex Cora was hit for the 82nd time in his career, and Matt Stairs got his 57th.

HBPs of note: June 22, 2009

Carlos Zambrano hit Don Kelly with a pitch last night, bringing Zambrano’s career total to 75 batters plunked. He’s 13 short of the Cubs all time record (currently held by Kerry Wood) and he’s the all time leader among pitchers from Venezuela.

Braves rookie Tommy Hanson hit a batter, making that the 100th plunk thrown by someone born in 1986. So, pitchers born in Jamie Moyer’s rookie year have hit 100 batters.

HBPs of note: June 22, 2009

Chris Iannetta and Ian Stewart, both of the Colorado Rockies, where the only batters hit by pitches yesterday. Stewart’s was the 700th plunk of the 2009 season, and Iannetta’s was the 495th plunk ever recorded by a batter born in Rhode Island. Iannetta has been hit just 23 times in his career, but that’s good enough for 9th on the Rockies all time HBP list.

HBPs of note: June 21, 2009

Khalil Greene got hit by a pitch yesterday, marking the 35th time in his career he’s done so. That would have tied the Padres’ franchise record if he still worked there, but they traded him to St. Louis last winter. So it was just his 35th plunk and nothing much else, except that it hit him in the knee and forced him to leave the game. Hopefully he’s feeling better.

Scott Rolen got his 108th career plunk, which moves him into tie for 52nd place on the all time plunk list with Mo Vaughn and Bill Joyce. Rolen has been plunked 22 more times than any other player born in Indiana, and Mo Vaughn is the most plunked player ever born in Connecticut.

Twelve different pitchers threw hit twelve different batters yesterday, and 4 of those batters were born in 1978.