Plunk Everyone

Chase Utley is now tied with Chet Lemon for 21st place on the all time HBP list, with 151. Tim Hudson hit him yesterday, again. Hudson has now hit Chase Utley’s 7 times, which is as many times as Pedro Astacio hit Craig Biggio, and as many times as Charlie Hough hit Don Baylor. They only matchup in the division era that’s produced more plunks is David Wells vs Jason Giambi. Wells hit Giambi 8 times. Hudson has now hit 108 batters, which puts him in a tie for 65th place on the all time list for plunks thrown. He’s tied with Gaylord Perry and Billy Rhines. 12.4% of all HBPs that have occurred at Citizen’s Bank Park have hit Chase Utley.

AJ Burnett threw his 107th career plunk yesterday, putting him just behind Hudson at 68th place on the all time list, tied with Ed Reulbach.

Jon Jay picked up his 15th plunk of the season, contributed by Justin Germano, making him just the 9th batter in Cardinals history to reach that total in a season. (David Eckstein, Fernando Vina, Fernando Tatis, Solly Hemus, Steve Evans, Dan McGann, John McGraw and Dick Harley as the others)

Chase Utley became the 22nd Major Leaguer ever to get hit by 150 pitches in a career, when Josh Edgin hit him with the bases loaded in the 9th inning last night. That was the 4th RBI plunk of Utley’s career, and his 4th at Citi Field. Utley has been hit 21 times by the Mets now, including 3 times this year. Prior to this month he’d never been hit by a pitcher named Josh, but Edgin is the second Josh to hit him this month. Utley’s RBI plunk was the 3rd bases loaded HBP of the day, making yesterday the first day since June 22, 2011 on which three batters were hit without an empty base to take. The Mets threw an RBI plunk in the 1st and 9th inning, making them the first team of the division era to accomplish that.

Blue Jays center fielder Colby Rasmus reached base on a Phil Hughes plunk in the 3rd inning, and then scored when Moises Alou was plunked with the bases loaded.

Ryan Braun got his 11th plunk of the season, the 48th of his career, and the 2nd while facing Jason Grilli. The Brewers are up to 88 plunks this season, making them the 19th team since 1900 to get hit 88 times. They have 13 regularly scheduled games left to improve on that total, and based on their per-game plunk rate this year, they should finish the year around 96 plunks.
Here’s the list of post-1900 teams with 88 or more HBPs:
2008 Indians – 103
1997 Astros – 100 (Biggio’s 34 plunk year)
2006 Phillies – 95
2004 Pirates – 95 (Craig Wilson‘s 30 plunk year)
1903 Giants – 92
1996 Blue Jays – 92
1997 Pirates – 92 (Kendall’s first 31 plunk season)
1998 Pirates – 91 (Kendall’s 2nd 31 plunk season)
2003 Blue Jays – 90
1905 Giants – 90
1901 Cardinals – 90
2007 Phillies – 90
2005 Nationals – 89
2007 Royals – 89
2006 Pirates – 89
2005 Blue Jays – 89
2001 Astros – 89
2001 A’s – 88
2012 Brewers – 88 (13 games left)

Dallas Keuchel threw his first major league plunk yesterday, but the guy he hit has been hit quite a few times – Chase Utley.  Utley has been hit 149 times, and 2012 is the 7th consecutive season in which Utley has been hit at least 10 times.  That’s the longest active streak of seasons with double digit plunks.  He needs to get hit 2 more times to tie Chet Lemon for 21st place on the all time HBP list.  Utley also earned the distinction of being the first batter ever plunked by a pitcher named Dallas in the city of Houston.  Dallas Green threw 30.1 innings at Colt Stadium in the 60s, but never plunked anyone there.  Dallas Braden hit Michael Young in Arlington once, but he’s never hit a batter in Houston.  Dallas Keuchel is the first Dallas to plunk a batter in Houston.

Andrelton Simmons took his first career plunk yesterday, and timed it pretty well.  He got hit with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th inning, with the score tied 4-4.  His plunk drove in Jeff Baker, making the score Braves 5, Nationals 4.  That was the 2nd time this year that Ryan Mattheus has hit a batter with the bases loaded, and the 3rd time in his career.  But he’s only ever hit 5 batters.

Aramis Ramirez picked up his 101st career plunk, taking one from Manny Acosta.  Ramirez is one plunk behind Orlando Cepeda for 72nd place all time.  The Brewers are up to 84 plunks this year, leading the league by a wide margin, and extending their franchise record for single season plunks.

Justin Masterson threw plunk number 50 of his career, hitting Alex Avila.

Josh Johnson became the 117th pitcher ever to hit Chase Utley with a pitch last night, when he plunked Utley in the 1st inning of the Marlins-Phillies game.  Utley now has 148 career HBPs, which is 3 short of Chet Lemon for 21st place on the all time list for career plunks.   Despite all those other HBPs, Utley had never been hit by a pitcher named Josh before yesterday. He’s been hit three times on September 12th.

In Minnesota last night, PJ Walters and Kyle Waldrop hit Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas of the Royals.  Waldrop’s plunk was the 4,000th ever thrown by the Twins franchise.

Austin Kearns picked up his 75th career plunk, also in the Phillies-Marlins game, and in the game between the Mets and Nationals, Kelly Shoppach got his 53rd career plunk.  That one was the 400th ever thrown in a game between the Mets and the Nationals franchise.

Rickie Weeks turns 30 years old today, which means he’s no longer the most plunked batter under 30 years old.  That distinction falls to Prince Fielder, who has 93 career plunks, and doesn’t turn 30 until May 9, 2014.

Jonathan Niese has now hit Chase Utley with a pitch twice in his career, and last nights was Utley’s 70th at Citizens Bank Park.  Since 1969, Craig Biggio is the only other player to get hit 70 times at one ballpark.  Utley is up to 147 plunks for his career, and that leaves him 4 plunks behind Chet Lemon for 21st place on the all time list.

Dodgers third baseman Luis Cruz took an HBP from Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks yesterday, and that was the 100th time the Dbacks have ever plunked a Dodgers batter.

Before yesterday, Mark Kotsay hadn’t been hit by a pitch since July 18, 2006. Since that date, Chase Utley has been hit 123 times, but Kotsay went 1,795 consecutive plate appearances without a plunk. Yesterday, Utley got his 123rd since Kotsay’s last plunk, and Mark Kotsay got his first. Kotsay had the longest active streak of consecutive plate appearances without a plunk, but that distinction now falls to Jose Reyes, who is up to 1,726 PAs without getting hit.
Kotsay seemed to have been waiting for Venezuelan rookie Luis Avilan to get hit by a pitch from, or the Braves rookie is just the end of a leaguewide 6 year search to find someone capable of hitting Kotsay. That was Avilan’s first career plunk, and Kotsay is now up to 13 for his career.
Or, it’s also possible that Mark Kotsay was trying to time his first plunk in years for a milestone, and this one happened to be the 400th plunk in PETCO park history, AND it was the 200th plunk ever recorded in a game between the Braves and Padres.

Chase Utley got hit by Matt Harvey, and Utley is now up to 146 career HBPs. That moves him ahead of Jose Guillen and gives him sole possession of 22nd place on the all time list. Harvey is the 116th pitcher to throw a plunk to Utley, and that was only the 2nd hit batter of his career. Also in that game Tyler Cloyd threw the first plunk of his career, to the 6th major league batter he faced.

12% of all HBPs that have happened at Citizen’s Bank Park have landed on Chase Utley. Homer Bailey threw Utley’s 144th career plunk last night, moving Utley ahead of David Eckstein on the all time plunks list, into sole possession of 23rd place. Utley needs one more to tie Jose Guillen. 144 plunks is, of course, a big milestone in the HBP world because it’s half way to 288, and 288 is how many plunks someone would need to take the all time record away from Hughie Jennings.

Cubs rookie Chris Rusin made his major league debut last night, facing the Brewers, and got through the first three innings perfectly – 9 up, 9 down. But then he plunked Norichika Aoki leading off the 4th inning for Aoki’s 9th plunk of the season, and then hit Aramis Ramirez three batters later. Rusin is the first pitcher this year to hit two batters in his major league debut. Ramirez is now up to 97 career plunks, moving closer to becoming the 2nd Brewer this year to join the 100 plunk club. Norichika Aoki got hit again later in the game, giving him 10 on the season, leading all rookies. He’s 2 plunks short of tying the Brewers record for plunks by a rookie. The Brewers have now been hit 72 times this year, 21 more than the next most plunked team. They’re on pace to get hit 96 times this year.

Chase Utley moved into the top 25 of the all time list for career HBPs, getting his 142nd. That ties him with Nellie Fox for 25th place all time, and he’s one plunk behind Carlton Fisk and David Eckstein. Tim Hudson threw that one, his 2nd time hitting Utley this year, and his 6th time overall. Hudson has hit everyone else in the league 100 times, so his total is 106. He’s 68th on the all time list, tied with David Cone and Earl Moore. Hudson’s 6 plunks to Utley are tied for the highest total between an active pitcher and batter. Mark Buehrle has hit Travis Hafner 6 times. That was Utey’s 65th plunk at Citizens Bank Park.

Alex Cobb hit Rajai Davis for the 3rd inning at Tampa yesterday, and that was the 1000th plunk in Tropicana Field history. Cobb celebrated by hitting Adeiny Hechavarria two innings later (in Hechavarria’s 12th career plate appearance in the majors).

Matt Treanor got hit by a pitch in the Dodgers/Rockies game yesterday, and as far as I know he’s the only batter ever hit by a pitch on the same day his wife won an Olympic Gold Medal. That was his first plunk of the season, so he must have been saving it for a special occasion. (Treanor didn’t play on the day his wife won gold in Barcelona, and Ed Sprague was not hit by a pitch at all in 1992, when his wife won a synchronized swimming gold medal in Barcelona).

Josh Beckett threw his 70th plunk yesterday, Mark Teixeira was on the receiving end of his 96th, and Prince Fielder got his 89th and his 11th of the season.

Fielder was hit by CC Sabathia, which puts the total combined weight involved in that plunk at 565 pounds.