It was recently pointed out to me that there aren’t enough baseball splits by chinese zodiac sign. So… here are the current HBP records, and active leaders, by what year of the chinese calendar they were born in. (For convenience purposes, we’re using the restaurant place-mat method, and just going by the year of the western calendar, rather than building all the cutoff points for each official chinese new year.)
| Year | Career record | Active Leader | Single Season Record |
| Rat | Carlos Delgado – 172 (1993-2009) | Manny Ramirez – 104 (1993-) | Melvin Mora – 20 (2002), Billy Gilbert – 20 (1903) |
| Ox | Don Baylor – 267 (1970-1988) | Mike Cameron – 86 (1995-) | Don Baylor – 35 (1986) |
| Tiger | Jason Kendall – 252 (1996-) | Jason Kendall – 252 (1996-) | Jason Kendall – 31 (1997,1998) |
| Rabbit | Jake Beckley – 183 (1888-1907) | Alex Rodriguez – 151 (1994-) | Pete Gilbert – 28 (1891) |
| Dragon | Brady Anderson – 154 (1988-2002) | Jose Guillen – 140 (1997-) | Craig Wilson – 30 (2004) |
| Snake | Hughie Jennings – 287 (1891-1918) | Aaron Rowand – 115 (2001-) | Hughie Jennings – 51 (1896) |
| Horse | Bill Dahlen – 140 (1891-1911) | Chase Utley – 115 (2003-) | Chase Utley – 27 (2008) |
| Ram | Dan McGann – 230 (1896-1908) | David DeJesus – 71 (2003-) | Dan McGann – 39 (1898) |
| Monkey | Fred Clarke – 153 (1894-1915) | Mark Teixeira – 72 (2003-) | Fred Clarke – 24 (1897) |
| Rooster | Fernando Vina – 157 (1993-2004) | Brad Ausmus* – 68 (1993-) | Steve Evans – 31 (1910) |
| Dog | Curt Welch – 173 (1884-1893) | Mark Grudzielanek – 105 (1995-) | Curt Welch – 36 (1891) |
| Pig | Tommy Tucker – 272 (1887-1899) | Jason Giambi – 168 (1995-) | Tommy Tucker – 33 (1889) |
*- If you’re understandably skeptical about whether Brad Ausmus still counts as active, you can have Ryan Garko at 55 career plunks as the active leader among Roosters.
Plunk Signal