Plunk Everyone

The internet tells me that Chan Ho Park has signed a deal with the Japanese Pacific League, which will leave MLB with one less pitcher with over 100 career plunks. At the moment, only 2 100+ plunk pitchers are signed to play in 2011 – Tim Wakefield, and Vicente Padilla. Jamie Moyer, Jamey Wright, and Jeff Weaver are the only others who pitched last year and have over 100 plunks to their credit, and they’re all on the free agent market. Wakefield has said 2011 will probably be his last year, and Padilla is only signed for a year. Jeff Suppan and Kerry Wood are the next closest to joining the 100 hit batsmen club at 94 each, but Suppan doesn’t have a job, and Wood hasn’t hit 6 batters since 2008. Behind them are AJ Burnett and Darren Oliver at 89 plunks, so they could crack into the club by the end of 2011 – but the possibility remains that 2012 could begin with no active pitchers with over 100 hit batters. That will be the first time for that since 1995, and prior to that it hadn’t happened since 1974.

Parks departure means that there are no longer any active pitchers who have plunked Jim Leyritz, Benito Santiago, Tony Gwynn (senior), Andy Benes, Jose Nieves, Mike Hampton or Livan Hernandez. Tim Hudson is the only remaining pitcher to have plunked Luis Alicea. If Suppan doesn’t find work, there will no longer be any active pitchers who plunked Scott Servais since Park and Suppan were the only ones left in that club. Park and Andy Pettitte were the last active pitchers to hit Orlando Miller with a pitch, so that club could be empty too, if rumors of Pettitte’s retirement are true. All that is probably important somehow.

In 2010′s major league baseball season, there were 304 incidents of defensive indifference recorded, which is down 4 from 2009.  But, it’s still 54 more defensive indifferences higher than the 5 year average from 2005 to 2009.  The Red Sox had the most indifferent catchers, with a team total of 20, while the Indians were only indifferent twice.  But, the 2010 award for the catcher who could care the least goes to Padres catcher Yorvit Torrealba, for his major league leading 13 runners he allowed to advance on defensive indifference.  He would receive a fine pewter statue of General Apathy, if this were a real award, and that was a real thing he could receive.

Here are the 2010 defensive indifference numbers:
Yorvit Torrealba – 13
Victor Martinez – 12
Russell Martin – 11
Brian McCann – 11
A.J. Pierzynski – 11
Geovany Soto – 11
Alex Avila – 10
Kurt Suzuki – 9
Bengie Molina – 9
John Jaso – 8
Jason Kendall – 7
Yadier Molina – 7
Brian Schneider – 7
Ivan Rodriguez – 6
Chris Snyder – 6
Matt Treanor – 6
Jason Varitek – 6
John Buck – 6
Taylor Teagarden – 6
Jason Castro – 5
Francisco Cervelli – 5
Ryan Doumit – 5
Jonathan Lucroy – 5
Ryan Hanigan – 5
Joe Mauer – 5
Jorge Posada – 5
Corky Miller – 4
Dioner Navarro – 4
Miguel Montero – 4
Craig Tatum – 4
Dave Ross – 4
Miguel Olivo – 4
Rob Johnson – 4
Hank Conger – 4
Drew Butera – 4
Matt Wieters – 4
Ramon Castro – 3
Rod Barajas – 3
Henry Blanco – 3
Carlos Maldonado – 3
Gerald Laird – 3
Ramon Hernandez – 3
Koyie Hill – 3
Nick Hundley – 3
Carlos Ruiz – 3
Eli Whiteside – 3
Buster Posey – 3
Jeff Mathis – 2
Humberto Quintero – 2
Kelly Shoppach – 2
Jason Jaramillo – 2
Kevin Cash – 2
Gregg Zaun – 2
Bobby Wilson – 1
A.J. Ellis – 1
Tyler Flowers – 1
Ryan Budde – 1
John Baker – 1
JP Arencibia – 1
Brad Ausmus – 1
Lou Marson – 1
George Kottaras – 1
Chris Iannetta – 1
Paul Hoover – 1
John Hester – 1
Chris Hatcher – 1
Brett Hayes – 1
Brayan Pena – 1
Paul Phillips – 1
Carlos Santana – 1
Adam Moore – 1
Jose Morales – 1
Mike Napoli – 1
Landon Powell – 1
Wil Nieves – 1

(These numbers are the number of runners who advanced, not the total number of bases they advanced. So if runners on both 1st and 2nd advanced, that would count as 2, but if a runner went from 1st to 3rd on defensive indifference that would count as 1. However, there were no 2-runner defensive indifference plays in 2010, and the only incident of a 1st to 3rd was one base of defensive indifference, and a 2nd base on a wild pitch.)

Here are the team by team totals:
Red Sox -20
Padres -16
Braves -15
White Sox -15
Dodgers -14
Rays -14
Cubs -14
Rangers -14
Giants -13
Tigers -13
Reds -12
Pirates -11
Phillies -11
A’s -10
Twins -10
Nationals -10
Yankees -10
Angels -9
Royals -8
Orioles -8
Brewers -8
Blue Jays -7
D-backs -7
Astros -7
Cardinals -7
Rockies -6
Mets -5
Mariners -5
Marlins -3
Indians -2