Plunk Everyone

HBPs of note: August 30, 2010

Juan Pierre took a plunking from Mitch Talbot yesterday, bringing his season total to 18, which puts him in the lead for the American League most plunkable player award. Prior to joining the White Sox this season, Pierre had never been hit by more than 10 pitches in a season.

Randy Wolf hit Jonny Gomes on a non-full moon date, perhaps to throw off recent rumors that he may be a werewolf. Wolf has hit a batter in 3 consecutive starts. Gomes now has 51 career plunks, and has now been hit twice by Wolf.

Aramis Ramirez got hit for the 33rd time at Wrigley Field, two short of Ernie Banks park total of 35, which I believe to be the record.

HBPs of note: August 28, 2010

Jose Guillen was hit for the first time since joining the San Francisco Giants yesterday, which means he has now been hit by a pitch while playing for 10 different teams. He’s been hit 26 times for the Royals, 26 times for the Nationals, 23 times for the Rays, 19 times for the Mariners, 15 times for the Angels, 14 times for the Pirates, 10 times for the Reds, 5 times for the A’s, twice for the Diamondbacks and once for the Giants. Only one other player has been hit by a pitch for 10 different teams is Royce Clayton, who was hit for the Giants (11), Rangers (8), Cardinals (6), White Sox (6), Rockies (4), Nationals (4), Brewers (3), Reds (1), Blue Jays (1) and Diamondbacks (1). Guillen’s 141 career plunks put him up to 24th place on the all time list, tied with Art Fletcher and David Eckstein.

Aaron Rowand also got hit for the Giants yesterday, giving him a career total of 117 HBPs. That puts him in sole possession of 44th place on the all time HBP list. He’s now been hit 20 times at AT&T park, and is the third player to get hit 20 times at the Giants current home.

Jeff Weaver hit Melvin Mora with a pitch, which was the 3rd time in two innings that the Dodgers hit the Rockies yesterday, but it was also the 200th plunk in the history of Rockies-Dodgers games. Mora has now been hit by 115 pitches, which ties him with Sherm Lollar and Jimmie Dykes on the all time HBP list at 47th place. Weaver has now hit 124 batters, and that’s the 2nd plunk this season where both the batter and pitcher were over 100 career plunks.

Corey Hart’s plunking by Zach Duke was the 11th time the Pirates have hit the Brewers this year, but that’s still 2 behind the Cubs plunkings of the Brewers for the league lead in plunks for a single matchup. The Red Sox have hit the Yankees 10 times.

HBPs of note: August 25, 2010

Derek Jeter got hit by a pitch for the 149th time last night, leaving him just one plunk short of becoming the 21st player in baseball history to get hit by 150 pitches. Jeter has now moved ahead of Brady Anderson’s 148 plunks with the Orioles on the list of most career HBPs for a single team. Only Craig Biggio, Hughie Jennings, Jason Kendall and Tommy Tucker have been hit more for one team than Jeter has been hit for the Yankees.

Randy Wolf hit Rod Barajas with a pitch last night, making that the 21st time he’s hit someone within one night of the date of a full moon. That ties him with Randy Johnson for the most plunks thrown near a full moon in the last 25 years. Also, Monday was the 25th anniversary of the release of the important werewolf documentary Teen Wolf. Possibly just a coincidence.

Chone Figgins took a rare HBP yesterday, on a Daniel Bard slider, increasing his rate of getting hit from once every 659 plate appearances to once every 578 plate appearances. That’s slightly less often than Jamie Moyer has been hit by pitches, on a per plate appearance basis.

Brandon Wood got his 2nd HBP of the season yesterday, and both have been thrown by Andy Sonnanstine.

Rick Ankiel got his 10th career HBP yesterday, and that makes him the first player since Steve Carlton to have 10 career HBP as well as 10 hit batters as a pitcher. If Ankiel can get hit 3 more times, he’ll be the first player since Babe Ruth with over 10 HBPs as a batter and a pitcher, but with more HBPs batting than pitching.

HBPs of note: August 24, 2010

Jason Michaels got his 20th career HBP yesterday, Adam Jones got his 25th (and 10th of the season), and Alex Rios got his 30th. Jeremy Guthrie threw his 35th – and then his 36th.

Brett Wallace took a plunk in the 16th inning of the Phillies/Astros game after a plate appearance featuring 4 throws to first base and two foul balls with the runner going. That’s the most total throws to first and fouls with the runner going this season in an HBP plate appearance. No one has been hit after more than 2 foul balls with the runner going, although Prince Fielder and Omar Vizquel both got hit after the pitcher threw to first base 5 times.

HBPs of note: August 23, 2010

Marlon Byrd got his 17th HBP of the season last night, thanks to the pitch throwing of Livan Hernandez. Hernandez racked up his 69th and 70th career hit batter, thanks to the not-getting-out-of-the-way of Byrd and Xavier Nady. Hernandez had not hit anyone so far this season, and yesterday’s plunks made him the 400th pitcher of 2010 to hit at least one batter.

Also, Hernandez had been in a tie with Pedro Ramos for the most plunks ever thrown by a Cuban since May 26, 2009 when Hernandez last hit a batter. Those two plunks yesterday give him the all time Cuban record, making him the first Cuban to hit 70 major league batters. Ramos’ record of 68 has stood since 1969 and withstood close calls from Orlando Hernandez (67 hit batters) and Rolando Arrojo (67 hit batters).

Jason Bartlett also got hit by a pitch yesterday, and that was the 837th plunk in baseball history to hit a batter named Jason.

HBPs of note: August 22, 2010

Carlos Pena was on the receiving end of the 80th plunk ever recorded in an A’s-Rays game yesterday, giving him a career total of 53 HBPs and a Rays record total of 37. He’s now 2 HBPs ahead of the Johnny Gomes and 6 ahead of Carl Crawford in the Rays record book. Dallas Braden threw that one, making it 10 hit batters for his career.

Felix Doubront of the Red Sox had never hit anyone before, but he plunked Jose Molina of the Blue Jays yesterday, making him the 399th pitcher to hit a batter this season. He’s also the 80th Venezuelan born pitcher ever to hit a batter in the majors. That was also the 596 known plunk by a batter named Jose.

HBPs of note: August 20, 2010

It was a pretty disappointing effort by the league’s batters yesterday, as only 3 of them got hit by pitches. Josh Wilson got the 7900th HBP ever recorded by a batter born in Pennsylvania, from Chad Gaudin who made it also the 1400th plunk ever thrown by a pitcher from Louisiana.

The Rockies got hit by a pitch in both the 9th and 10th inning against the Diamondbacks, but still managed to lose the game. Teams that get hit twice after the beginning of the 9th inning now have 2 wins and 3 loses this year. One of those was Clint Barmes’ 35th career plunk, making him the 6th Rocky ever to reach that total.