Plunk Everyone

HBPs of note: September 28, 2009

Once upon a time there was a baseball player in the far away land of Philadelphia. His name was Chase Utley and he got hit by a lot of pitches. In the long ago year of 2009, he got hit by 23 pitches... until, September 28th when he faced Tim Byrdak in the 8th inning of the Phillies game against the Houston Astros when he got hit by his 24th pitch of the season, and his 107th overall. Utley has now been hit 47 times at Citizen Bank Park. If he can get one more this year he'll join Hughie Jennings, Tommy Tucker and Ron Hunt as the only players with three consecutive 25 plunk seasons. He's already the only left handed batter with three consecutive seasons over 20 plunks.

That was the 2nd time this month that Tim Byrdak has plunked Chase Utley - he threw Utley's 20th plunk of the year back on September 4th.

In other action yesterday, Ervin Santana threw his 45th career plunk, and became the first major league pitcher to plunk Julio Borbon. Lastings Milledge collected his 30th career HBP, and Hunter Jones threw his first big league plunking. He's the 497th pitcher to hit a batter this season. Aaron Laffey's plunking of Dewayne Wise in Cleveland was the 799th HBP recorded in park history at Jacobs-Progressive Field.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

Wednesday, I put up a post about rating plunks by difficulty, and what batters have had the most HBPs by difficulty. The theory being that we could rank plunks by how frequently the thrower of each plunk throws plunks, and then add up the scores to see which batters have been hit the most by the pitchers who don't hit that many batters. So, reader KL Snow was intrigued by that, but more interested in applying the same method to home runs. The only problem is, I'm not a huge fan of home runs and usually try not to write about them, but I do like to answer questions when people take the time to leave a comment and ask them. Home runs just still have a certain 'roidiness surrounding them, aside from their being somewhat overrated as a stat in the first place, and generally taking too much focus away from HBPs. So, in a very confusing compromise, here's a post about home runs by difficulty, badly disguised as a post about foul balls.

As we know, lots of people are good at hitting foul balls. And some batters are good at hitting home runs. But it's a lot easier to hit home runs off some pitchers than others, and some pitchers hardly ever give up homers. So what happens if we can find a way to confuse the matter rate home runs by difficulty for those batters who have hit the most foul balls? Or look at who has hit the most foul balls among those who have hit the most difficult home runs?

There are a lot of factors that go into the difficulty of the home run, and among the top of the list are the ball park and the weather. But we'll ignore those for now and just look at which pitchers have given up homers at the highest rate this year. If we take each homer and assign it a score based on the pitchers' Batters Faced per Home Run Allowed, we can add those up for each batter and get their total home run difficulty. So, since Carlos Marmol has given up only 1 homer to the 324 batters he's faced, that homer is worth 324 points to the guy who hit it (John Baker). Chris Sampson has given up 2 homers to the 248 batters he's faces, so those homers are worth 124 points each - although both were to Alfonso Soriano so he gets 248 points for the 2 of them. Zack Greinke has given up 11 homers to 860 batters, so each of those homers is worth 78.18 points to the batters who have hit them. And, since Braden Looper has given up 37 homers in his 859 batters faced this year, his homers are only worth 21.86 difficulty points to the batters who hit them. Makes sense, right?

Here are the home run difficulty scores for the top ten foul ball hitters this season, and their HBPs, just because:

Batter	Foul Balls	Home Run Difficulty	Home Runs	HBP
Brian Roberts (BAL)	535	519	15	2
Todd Helton (COL)	509	530	14	2
Carl Crawford (TB)	509	502	14	8
Pablo Sandoval (SF)	505	871	22	4
Andre Ethier (LAD)	501	1055	31	13
Derek Jeter (NYY)	501	580	17	4
Aaron Hill (TOR)	481	1060	33	5
Ryan Howard (PHI)	477	1784	42	6
Shin-Soo Choo (CLE)	475	569	17	15
Jayson Werth (PHI)	472	1275	34	8

And here are the top 20 batters in home run difficulty, with their foul ball and HBP totals as a side order:

Batter	Home Run Difficulty	Home Runs	Average HR difficulty	Foul Balls	HBP
Mark Reynolds (ARI)	1988	43	46.23	422	4
Ryan Howard (PHI)	1784	42	42.49	477	6
Prince Fielder (MIL)	1651	42	39.3	447	9
Albert Pujols (STL)	1620	47	34.47	390	9
Adam Dunn (WSH)	1448	38	38.1	444	4
Adrian Gonzalez (SD)	1432	39	36.72	432	5
Carlos Pena (TB)	1326	39	34	375	9
Raul Ibanez (PHI)	1298	33	39.32	332	4
Jayson Werth (PHI)	1275	34	37.51	472	8
Chase Utley (PHI)	1247	31	40.24	393	23
Evan Longoria (TB)	1237	31	39.89	399	8
Derrek Lee (CHC)	1226	35	35.03	380	3
Ryan Zimmerman (WSH)	1220	31	39.36	392	2
Russell Branyan (SEA)	1219	31	39.34	377	9
Mark Teixeira (NYY)	1217	37	32.88	388	11
Kendry Morales (LAA)	1213	31	39.14	410	2
Dan Uggla (FLA)	1202	30	40.06	406	7
Justin Morneau (MIN)	1194	30	39.8	401	3
Jason Bay (BOS)	1166	36	32.39	354	9
Paul Konerko (CWS)	1145	28	40.89	350	10

As you can see, Mark Reynolds is leading the league in home run diffuculty, by a pretty wide margin (but he's not in the top 20 in foul balls, and has only 2 HBPs). His most difficult plunk was off Joel Pineiro, who has only given up 7 homers while facing 815 batters. Reynolds is also the only batter to homer off of Cristhian Martinez, Boone Logan, and Josh Wilson, although only two of those rate as difficult, because Josh Wilson has only faced 10 batters this year. Reynolds has the highest average difficulty per homer of any batter with 15 or more homers, but he has 43. He also has struck out 208 times this season, breaking his own single season strikeout record, and he's the only batter ever to strike out 200 times in a season, as well as the only batter to strike out 200 times in back to back seasons, so he's got that going for him.

Among the top 20 batters in total difficulty, Prince Fielder has the highest score on a single homer. He hit the only homer this season off Blaine Boyer, and Boyer has faced 230 batters. That's the third highest difficulty score of this season behind John Baker's homer of Carlos Marmol (324 batters faced per homer), and Ryan Sweeney's homer off Robinson Tejada (269 batters faced per homer).

Albert Pujols leads the majors with 47 homers, but he's kind of feasted on cupcakes, relatively speaking. He's tied with Jason Bay for the most home runs off pitchers who give one up more often than once every 30 batters, with 18 each. Pujols most difficult homer scored just 58.8 points, off Sean Green.

As you can see from the next list, Mark Reynolds also leads the league in home run difficulty among those with at last 400 foul balls hit:

Batter	Home Run Difficulty	Home Runs	Average HR difficulty	Foul Balls	HBP
Mark Reynolds (ARI)	1988	43	46.23	422	4
Ryan Howard (PHI)	1784	42	42.49	477	6
Prince Fielder (MIL)	1651	42	39.3	447	9
Adam Dunn (WSH)	1448	38	38.1	444	4
Adrian Gonzalez (SD)	1432	39	36.72	432	5
Jayson Werth (PHI)	1275	34	37.51	472	8
Kendry Morales (LAA)	1213	31	39.14	410	2
Dan Uggla (FLA)	1202	30	40.06	406	7
Justin Morneau (MIN)	1194	30	39.8	401	3
Michael Cuddyer (MIN)	1138	29	39.25	418	3

But, Chase Utley leads the league in home run difficulty among players with at least 10 HBPs (which is really the standard all stats should be qualified by - if you haven't been hit by ten pitches, your season just shouldn't count):

Batter	Home Run Difficulty	Home Runs	Average HR difficulty	Foul Balls	HBP
Chase Utley (PHI)	1247	31	40.24	393	23
Mark Teixeira (NYY)	1217	37	32.88	388	11
Paul Konerko (CWS)	1145	28	40.89	350	10
Andre Ethier (LAD)	1055	31	34.03	501	13
Brandon Inge (DET)	1047	27	38.79	383	17
Ryan Braun (MIL)	1044	29	36.02	416	12
Clint Barmes (COL)	1015	23	44.14	456	10
Josh Willingham (WSH)	884	23	38.45	315	12
Kevin Youkilis (BOS)	813	25	32.51	411	14
Kevin Kouzmanoff (SD)	662	17	38.91	391	10

And lastly, just because it might be interesting, here are the ten lowest average difficulty scores among players with 30 or more homers:

Batter	Home Run Difficulty	Home Runs	Average HR difficulty	Foul Balls	HBP
Miguel Cabrera (DET)	913	31	29.45	451	5
Aaron Hill (TOR)	1060	33	32.12	481	5
Jason Bay (BOS)	1166	36	32.39	354	9
Mark Teixeira (NYY)	1217	37	32.88	388	11
Carlos Pena (TB)	1326	39	34	375	9
Andre Ethier (LAD)	1055	31	34.03	501	13
Troy Tulowitzki (COL)	1027	30	34.23	415	2
Nelson Cruz (TEX)	1101	32	34.41	305	2
Albert Pujols (STL)	1620	47	34.47	390	9
Derrek Lee (CHC)	1226	35	35.03	380	3

Andre Ethier, Ryan Braun and Clint Barmes are the only players this season with at least 10 plunks, at least 400 foul balls hit, and over 1000 total home run difficulty points.

(all stats are through September 24th)

Labels: Chase Utley, foul ball friday

HBPs of note - September 23, 2009

Prior to yesterday, only 488 pitchers had hit a batter in the major leagues this year, and that wasn't as many pitchers as there were in 2007 who hit at last on batter. 489 different pitchers hit a batter that year, but that was the record. Never before had 490 different pitchers hit at least on batter in a single major league season. Until yesterday. Ian Kennedy hit Howie Kendrick to become the 489 pitcher to throw a plunk in 2009, and Kevin Mulvey of the Diamondbacks hit Eli Whiteside to break the record and be the 490th pitcher with a plunk this year. Only 1,478 total plunks have been thrown this year, which is 372 plunks short of the single season record and could be the lowest total since 1997, but every year we seem to need more arms to throw all those plunks. Overall there have been 660 different players who pitched this season, and only170 of them have pitched without hitting anyone. The record for most pitchers used in a season is 666.

The Phillies were visiting Florida for a game last night, and Chase Utley was among 4 batters hit by a pitch. He was also one of two batters to be plunked by a Dutchman, making that his first HBP by a pitcher from the Netherlands. Utley has now been plunkd by pitchers from 10 different countries among his 106 career plunks and his league leading 23 plunks this season.

Nick Johnson got his 11th HBP of the season, and Carlos Quentin got his 13th of the year yesterday. Dustin Pedroia got his 20th career HBP, and CJ Wilson threw the 20th of his career.

Labels: Carlos Quentin, Chase Utley, HBPs of note

It's easy to find out what batter has been hit by the most pitches in a given season, by just counting the bruises, but how can we figure out who is truly skilled at the art of the HBP and who is just getting a lot of plate appearances against the criminally insane? Okay, there probably aren't more than a few pitchers who are actually criminally insane, but the truth is that it's much easier to get hit by Johnny Cueto or Joba Chamberlain this season, than by James Shields or Clayton Kershaw. So, what happens if we weight each plunk by level of difficulty?

To establish a level of difficulty for each plunk, we can just look at the season rate of batters face per plunk thrown for each pitcher. So, when Kevin Youkilis got plunked by Rick Porcello this year, that plunk was worth 323 difficulty points, because Porcello has only hit one out of every 323 batters he's faced this year. But when Youk go hit by Brandon League, that only counts for 49 points because league has hit 6 out of the 294 batters he's faced, or one out of every 49. Then once we assign difficulty scores to each plunk we can see that Youkilis has a season difficulty total of 1850 - which is third best in the league.

Obviously these number are subject to change, because each pitcher's plunk rate will change every time they pitch, and we're basing the difficulty scores on the pitcher's plunk rate for the whole season. But, here are the leaders in 2009 plunks by total difficulty score:

Batter	Total HBP Difficulty	HBP
Chase Utley (PHI)	2,605	22
Jason Kendall (MIL)	2,025	14
Kevin Youkilis (BOS)	1,850	14
Shin-Soo Choo (CLE)	1,734	15
Carlos Quentin (CWS)	1,669	12
Brandon Inge (DET)	1,620	17
Andre Ethier (LAD)	1,608	13
Ryan Braun (MIL)	1,597	12
Kelly Shoppach (CLE)	1,540	18
David Eckstein (SD)	1,312	9

As you can see, Utley still tops the league, and pulled off some notably difficult feats of plunkery like being hit twice by Chris Volstad, who has only hit one other batter among his 663 batters faced. He's still helped the most by shear volume of plunkings though, and his average difficulty per plunk was just 118.4 - 9th best among batters with 10 or more plunks.

Kelly Shoppach is 2nd in the majors in total HBPs, but when we rank them by difficulty he drops down to 9th, due to the number of high volume plunkers he's been hit by. The pitchers who hit Shoppach have hit, on average, one out of every 85.5 batters they've faced this year, and he's been hit by 4 different pitchers who hit at least one batter for every 50 they've faced - Dave Bush (34.6 BF per HBP), Luis Ayala (45), Jamey Wright (47.1) and Johnny Cueto (48.6). Shoppach's been hit by a lot of pitchers who have hit a lot of batters.

Among batters who have been hit at least 10 times this season, Jason Kendall has the highest average difficulty per plunk, at 144.6. He was helped greatly by receiving Aaron Cook's only plunk of the season, amon 627 batters faced. Clint Barmes had the lowest difficulty score among batters with 10 plunks, at just 65.4. Seven of the ten pitchers who plunked Barmes this year have plunked batters at a rate better than one plunk every 50 batters. So, don't go picking up Barmes for your HBP fantasy league next year, just because he had a career high this season.

Also of note, as of today, Shin-Soo Choo has been hit by 5 different pitchers who have only thrown 1 plunk this year. If none of those pitchers hits another batter (Damaso Marte, Fu-Te Ni, John Bale, Juan Cruz, and Marc Rzepczynski), Choo will be the first batter to get hit by 5 different one-plunk-wonders since 2000 when Fernando Vina did it. Nobody in the Jamie Moyer era has been hit by 6 pitchers who only threw one plunk in the season. The only others to do that 5 times in a season are Craig Biggio in 1998, FP Santangelo in 1997, Dave Hollins in 1992 and Don Baylor in 1986.


If Utley were to finish the season with his current HBP Difficulty score, it would rank 23rd among season scores in the Jamie Moyer era (since 1986). Don Baylor's '86 season is the highest, with a 6,314 score on 35 plunks. Baylor has the 2nd best season too, with a 4,479 in 1987 on 28 HBPs, but Jason Kendall's 31 plunk season in 1998 takes third place with a score of 4,284. Chase Utley's best season was last year, when he got a 2,707, but he could easily beat that if he just gets one more plunk from someone who hasn't hit many people.

Labels: Chase Utley, Jason Kendall

HBPs of note: September 16, 2009

Chase Utley continues to find new ways of getting hit by pitches (with a league leading 22), and last night's method was to get hit by someone named Tyler Clippard. Clippard had never plunked a batter before, but he does pitch for the Washington Nationals and they've now hit Chase Utley 6 times this year. He's the first batter to get hit by the same team 6 times in a season since Carlos Delgado was plunked 6 times by the 2005 Phillies. Neither Craig Biggio nor Don Baylor ever got hit more than 6 times by a single team in a season, but Fernando Vina and FP Santangelo got hit 7 times 2002 Reds and the 1997 Astros, and Ron Hunt got hit 11 times by the 1971 Mets.

Brian McCann got plunked in the 9th inning of the Braves/Mets game, and the pinch-runner who replaced him came around to score the winning run on an always-exciting walk off error.

Including Tyler Clippard, 484 pitchers have hit a batter this year - the record is 489.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of note: September 11, 2009

Prior to last night, Tim Byrdak, Mike Pelfrey, John Lannan, Joel Hanrahan, and AJ Burnett had all plunked Chase Utley on a Friday. Nelson Figueroa must have realized that all the cool kids were plunking Chase Utley on a Friday, because he wanted to do it to - although he did throw three non-plunking pitches to Utley before hitting him in the first inning last night. Utley is now up to 21 HBPs on the season leading the majors, but while he's been plunked on every day of the week, he has 6 on Friday. He's now been hit 14 times by right handed pitchers this year. That was also the 150th plunk by a 2nd baseman this year.

That was Utley's 104th HBP of his career, but Melvin Mora also got hit by a pitch yesterday and he's up to 109. Todd Helton got his 50th career HBP yesterday, Matt Holiday got his 55th, and Nick Johnson got his 65th. Jose Bautista got his 25th career HBP. Helton's 50th was his first plunk this year, after 560 plate appearances with no plunks.

No shortstops were hit by pitches yesterday, and in fact no shortstops have been plunked since September 6th.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of note: September 4, 2009

Chase Utley has been hit by a lot of pitches, especially for a left handed batter. He's up to 103 for his career, and as of last night he's up to 20 this season, leading the majors. That makes him the first left handed batter ever to get hit 20 times in 3 consecutive seasons. Tim Byrdak contributed last nights plunking, but it was only the 7th of his career, and the first time he hit Chase Utley.

Manny Ramirez got the 102nd plunk of his career last night, andAaron Rowand got his 107th. Rowand's 107th was thrown by Jeff Suppan, and was the 90th hit batter of his career, as well as the 1400th hit batter thrown by a pitcher born in 1975.

Jamie Moyer threw the 137th plunk of his career, plunking Michael Bourn, who has only been hit 4 times, and is only 4 years older than Jamie Moyers career. Pitchers born since the beginning of Moyers career have hit 39 batters, and batters younger than Moyers career have been hit 53 times.

One of those pitchers younger than Moyer's career hit a batter younger than Moyer's career last night. Daniel Hudson hit Josh Reddick, and to make it more interesting he did it in his first major league appearance, and hit the first batter he ever faced, and made it the first plunk of the batter's career (though it wasn't Reddick's first plate appearance). He's the first pitcher this season to hit the first major league batter he ever faced. It took Hudson 5 pitches to hit his first Major League Batter, but on August 13th, Cesar Cerillo of the Padres hit a batter on his 3rd pitch (but it was the 2nd batter he faced).

Also, and perhaps most impressively, Aaron Boone got his 80th career HBP, and his first since coming back from open heart surgery. He might be the first major leaguer ever plunked after open heart surgery.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note, Houston Astros

HBPs of note: September 3, 2009

Chase Utley got hit by a pitch last night, contributed by Giants ace Tim Lincecum, bringing his 2009 season total to 19. That moves him 1 plunk ahead of Kelly Shoppach for the Major League lead. Utley has now been hit 102 times in his career, and if he gets one more this year he'll be the first left-hander ever to get hit 20 times in three consecutive seasons.

Ryan Dempster's 6th inning plunking of Chris Getz yesterday was the 1800th plunk thrown by someone born in 1977. Pitchers born in 1977 have hit more batters than any other vintage.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of Note: August 18, 2009

Chase Utley was one of seven batters plunked in yesterday's baseball action, but he was the only one who was plunked for the 18th time this season. He leads the league, and is now 2 plunks ahead of Kelly Shoppach. That was also his 101st career plunk.

Alex Rodriguez was plunked for the 149th time in his career, and Jason Larue got plunk number 106 of his career.

Of the 7 pitchers who threw a plunk yesterday, 5 of them had a first name that was 3 letters long - Jon Garland, Vin Mazzaro, Jay Marshall, Gil Meche and Bud Norris. Here are some facts about Bud Norris: He's the 12th Bud to hit a batter in major league history, and the first since 2002. He's also just the 2nd Norris to hit a batter.

Cody Ross got hit by a pitch for the Marlins, marking the 995th plunk in team history.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of note: August 5, 2009

Chase Utley didn't wait around long on the brink of the 100 plunk milestone. He got his 99th career plunk on Tuesday, and found number 100 Wednesday on a 5th inning change-up from Jorge De La Rosa. Utley is the 68th player to get hit by 100 pitches, but he's the first to do so for the Phillies, and he's just the 23rd player ever to take 100 plunks for one team. He joins Derek Jeter and Melvin Mora as the only active players with 100 plunks for there current team, although Jason Kendall did it with the Pirates and Jason Giambi took 100 HBPs with the Yankees. That plunk was also the 400th HBP in Citizens Bank Park history. And that HBP extends Utley's league leading total to 17.

Albert Pujols and David DeJesus both got their 65th career HBPs. Pablo Sandoval got his 5th.

Thirteen different pitchers from 7 countries threw the fourteen plunks recorded in yesterdays games.


Here's the full list of players who have taken 100 pitches for one franchise:
Craig Biggio (Astros) - 285
Hughie Jennings (Pre-1900 NL Orioles) - 205
Jason Kendall (Pirate) - 177
Tommy Tucker (Braves) - 150
Brady Anderson (Orioles) - 148
Minnie Minoso (White Sox) - 145
Derek Jeter (Yankees) - 141
Frank Chance (Cubs) - 137
Art Fletcher (Giants) - 132
Jeff Bagwell (Astros) - 128
Nellie Fox (White Sox) - 125
Carlos Delgado (Blue Jays) - 122
Frank Robinson (Reds) - 118
Ron Hunt (Expos) - 114
Bill Freehan (Tigers) - 114
Frankie Crosetti (Yankees) - 114
Jason Giambi (Yankees) - 109
Honus Wagner (Pirates) - 107
Brian Downing (Angels) - 105
Melvin Mora (Orioles) - 104
Sherm Lollar (White Sox) - 101
Jake Beckley (Pirates) - 100
Chase Utley (Phillies) - 100

Alex Rodriguez is the next closest player to joining this club, but he only has 74 with the Yankees. Next up is Paul Konerko, who got his 69th plunk with the White Sox yesterday. Then Jorge Posada is tied at 65 with Pujols and DeJesus, who just joined him at 65 plunks with their teams.

Don Baylor, by the way, never got hit by 100 pitches for a single team, but he is still the only player who's been hit over 50 times for three different teams.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of note: August 4, 2009

It was a busy day for baseballs hitting batters yesterday, with 19 HBPs around the game. That's the most plunks on a single day in the 2009 season, and the first 19 plunk day since July 19, 2008.

Manny Ramirez got career plunk number 100, off Brewer Chris Smith. Ramirez is the 67th batter in Major League history to be hit by 100 pitches, and he joins Jose Guillen and Miguel Tejada as the only Dominican players to reach that milestone.

Chase Utley got his 99th career plunk, and his 16th of the season, moving ahead of Kelly Shoppach for the league league lead this year. Jason Hammel threw that one, but probably didn't know that hitting him again would have created the very interesting circumstance of having two players reach 100 plunks on the same date, and it would have been the 400th plunk in Citizens Bank Park history. Maybe that's a good thing though, that pitchers don't know these things.

Mark DeRosa picked a good time to get his 45th career HBP - in the 10th inning of a tie game, with the bases loaded. His RBI plunk put the Cardinals ahead of the Mets, but then Albert Pujols stole his glory with an insurance grand slam putting the Cardinals ahead by 5.

Former teammates Grady Sizemore and Ryan Garko both got their 55th career HBP yesterday, and Jonny Gomes got his 40th. Joel Pineiro threw his 40th career plunk. Garko's plunk was thrown by Astros pitcher Felipe Paulino, and that was the 1900th plunk thrown in Astros history.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of Note: July 28, 2009

The Dodgers pitching staff got roughed up by the Cardinals yesterday, which forced LA to bring in backup infielder Mark Loretta to pitch the final third of the 8th inning. But the interesting part is that he plunked Matt Holliday. He became the first position player to plunk a batter in a pitching appearance since Aaron Miles (of the Cards) hit Astro Cody Ransom on September 20, 2007. Loretta has been hit 71 times himself, which puts him in the HBP lead among active players who have also hit a batter. Only three players in baseball history who have hit a batter have been hit themselves more times than Loretta - Gary Gaetti (96), Jimmy Ryan (83 - plus 6 thrown), and Yank Robinson (75). Robinson and Ryan threw their plunks before the year 1900, so Gaeti and Loretta are the only modern players to hit a batter and get hit over 70 times. Among active players who have hit a batter, the previously mentioned Aaron Miles has the 2nd most HBPs himself, behing Loretta, with 9.

Loretta's plunk of Holliday was clocked at 78.3 MPH, which was only the 2nd slowest moving HBP of the night. Mike Gonzalez's pitch that hit John Baker only left his hand at 76.8 MPH.

In other news, Chase Utley got hit by a pitch for the 15th time this season, putting him back into a tie for first place in the 2009 plunk race. That was the 98th of Utley's career, and the 2nd contribution by Scott Schoeneweis.

Michael Cuddyer collected the 800th HBP by a batter born in 1979 yesterday, and some other things probably happened.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of note: July 19, 2009

Chase Utley got hit by another pitch yesterday, putting himself back into a tie for the Major League lead this season, and driving in a run in the process. Utley has been hit 14 times this season, tied with Chase Utley for the season lead, and he's now been hit 97 times in his career. Among those, he has now been plunked 3 times with the bases loaded. Andrew Miller threw the ball that hit Utley, and while he's only hit 15 batters in his career, he has now hit Utley twice.

The pitching side of the HBP race also saw some action yesterday, as Joba Chamberlain moved into a tie for the league lead with David Bush. They've both hit 10 batters this season. Chamberlain became the first Yankee since Randy Johnson in 2006 to hit 10 batters in a season.

Melvin Mora got his for the 105th time in his career, which ties him with Dan Brouthers for 58th place on the all time list. If he were in 58th place on the all time homers list he'd be around 381 homers and tied with Albert Belle, but he's not in 58th place on that list.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of Note: July 11, 2009

Chase Utley collected his 13th HBP of the 2009 season yesterday, bringing him within one of this year's plunk leader, Kelly Shoppach. But Shoppach hasn't been plunked since June 15th so the momentum may have swung back in Utley's favor in the HBP race. That was also Utley's 96th career HBP, which leaves him tied for 75th all time with Gary Gaetti, Reggie Jackson, Geoff Jenkins, and Reed Johnson. That was also Chase Utley's 40th plunk at Citizens Bank Park. 10.2% of plunks recorded at Citizens Bank Park have been Utleys.

Jason Giambi also got plunked yesterday, and that's 164 for him. He's still the third most plunked lefty ever and the most plunked lefty ever born in California. But, Chase Utley is the 4th most plunked left-handed Californian, so if he continues his pace from the last few season, he should have no problem surpassing Giambi by the time Utley finishes his career.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note, Utley

HBPs of note: June 24, 2009

Randy Johnson threw his 189th plunk last night, hitting Jack Hannahan. Johnson had been stuck on 188 plunks since September 28, 2008. According to one version of the all time hit batsmen list, Johnson only needs to hit 14 more batters to tie Walter Johnson for the most ever, but there are other sources that disagree with that total for Walter Johnson, and a few other guys who may or may not have hit over 200 batters.

Chase Utley got hit by Matt Garza giving him 12 on the season and 95 in his career. That was his first ever against the Rays though. Utley is 2nd in this years HBP race, 2 behind Kelly Shoppach.

Miguel Tejada got his 101st career plunk, Carlos Pena got his 44th, and Paul Konerko received his 69th career HBP. And Juan Pierre got his 63rd.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note, Rays

Congratulations to Miguel Tejada, on becoming the 65th player in Major League history to reach the 100 HBPs milestone. He got hit by Pittsburgh's Matt Capps. Unfortunately for Tejada, the Houston Astro fans might not be impressed by the 100 HBP milestone after seeing Craig Biggio get 285, and Jeff Bagwell get 128. But it's still a relatively rare accomplishment to reach 100 HBPs.

Also, the Arizona Diamondbacks were plunked for the 600th time in franchise history. They are the last in total HBPs among current teams, but when Eric Byrnes got hit by Javier Vazquez yesterday, that pushed them to an even 600.

Chase Utley got hit again, bringing his season total to 11, which leads the league. His career total is 94 and at the rate he's going, he should have no trouble joining Tejada in the 100 plunk club.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of note: May 22, 2009

Chase Utley got hit by a pitch yesterday, which is not exactly a new thing - he leads the league with 9 HBPs this season, and is up to 92 for his career. It was his first plunk at the New Yankee Stadium, and the 20th in the short history of that new park, but perhaps most interestingly, it was the 4,500th HBP in Phillies franchise history. They're the 5th franchise to reach that milestone. The first 138 HBPs in franchise history were recorded when the team was known as the Philadelphia Quakers, and then for a couple of years in the 1940s they they got hit 52 times while they had changed their name to the Blue Jays for some reason.

David Eckstein got hit by a pitch for the 129th time in his career, but he had to leave the game because of it, so that's less cool. He's generally very good at being able to get hit without serious injury, but Carlos Zambrano hit him pretty hard (90.3 mph) while Eckstein was squaring to bunt. Hopefully he'll be back soon, continuing his climb up the all time HBP list - where he's currently tied for 35th, with Brian Downing and Willie Keeler. For Zambrano, it was his 73rd career hit batter.

Also in that game, Jake Peavy hit one batter, leaving him on plunk short of tieing the Padres career record for hitting batters. He's plunked 45 batters in his career.

Joel Zumaya hit a batter, making yesterday the first day since May 11, 2005 on which two different pitchers whose last name begins with Z hit a batter.

Jerry Hairston Jr. collected his 65th HBP, and Carlos Pena got his 40th. Pena's plunk was the 74th in the all time interleague series between the Marlins and Rays. Those two teams have plunked each other 23 more times than the next most plunk-filled interleague series. It's also been the most lopsided, with the Rays having hit the Marlins 52 times, and the Marlins firing back just 22 times, including yesterday's plunk of Carlos Pena.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

HBPs of Note: May 15, 2009

Chase Utley must have been really excited about breaking the Phillies franchise HBP record on Thursday, because on Friday he celebrated by getting hit two more times by the Nationals. John Lannan hit him in the 6th inning, and Joel Hanrahan got him in the 10th, bringing Utley's career total to 91. Utley has been hit 6 times now at Nationals Park, which would have tied him for the park record if the Phillies hadn't plunked Nick Johnson last night. Johnson now has 7 plunks at Nationals Park, and 59 total.

Oakland rookie pitcher Brett Anderson hit Brandon Inge for his first career hit batter. Unfortunately for him, his first hit batter loaded the bases for Detroit, and 5 pitches later he gave up his first grand slam.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

Since Chase Utley entered the major leagues in 2003, three other players have been hit by more pitches than him - Jason Kendall with 103, Jason Giambi with 98 and Reed Johnson with 95. But, Utley didn't start his career as a plunk target the way Johnson and Kendall did, and the way Carlos Quintin has more recently. Utley's first three seasons only included only 17 HBPs, but in 2006 Aaron Rowand showed up. The Phillies traded away Jim Thome in November of 2005, and aquired Rowand who was coming off a 21 HBP season and a championship with the White Sox. In 2005, the Phillies got hit by 56 pitches as a team, but in 2006, with the addition of Rowand, their plunk production ballooned up to 96, their best season ever. Rowand led the team with 18 plunks that year, and Utley was close behind with 14. The following year, Rowand got hit 19 times, but Utley took up the challenge and got hit 25 times.
Since the beginning of 2006, Chase Utley has been hit 19 times more than the next most plunked player in the Majors - Aaron Rowand. Utley has been hit 72 times since he first teamed up with Rowand, and Rowand has been hit 53 times. It seems likely that it was Rowand who taught the art of the plunk to Chase Utley. (Rowand on the other hand, probably learned to get hit by pitches from one of Carl Everett's multiple personalities - one of which was good enough to get hit by 87 pitches, although some of the other personalities were so filled with anger it was difficult for him to get hit by more without flying into fits of white hot rage of the sort that draws high pressure weather systems toward his head and rains out games. And causes headbutts to umpires. But anyway, Rowand played with Everett in Chicago, and Carl Everett played in Houston in 1998 and 1999 with Craig Biggio, the modern master of the plunk. Everett had his first double-digit plunk year in Houston in '99. Biggio though, learned the art from teammate Jeff Bagwell, who led the National League in plunks in his rookie year in 1991, several years before Biggio mastered the art. Bagwell, meanwhile, very likely watched the Red Sox growing up in Connecticut, and saw Don Baylor get plunked 35 times in 1986, helping the Sox go to the ill-fated World Series that year. So you see how it's all connected.)

Utley's favorite inning to get hit by a pitch in is the 7th, with 15 HBPs there, and his favorite day of the week to get plunked is appears to be Tuesday so far, with 16.

Plunks by inning: 1st - 14 2nd - 6 3rd - 7 4th - 8 5th - 9 6th - 10 7th - 15 8th - 9 9th - 8 10th - 2 16th - 1

Plunks by weekday: Sunday - 10 Monday - 13 Tuesday - 16 Wednesday - 14 Thursday - 7 Friday - 14 Saturday - 15

Since the beginning of 2003, the Phillies have a .602 win percentage when Chase Utley gets hit by a pitch, and only a .534 win percentage when he doesn't (that includes games he didn't play in). He's scored runs after reaching base on a plunk 33 times, and he's driven in 2 runs on plunks.

Utley broke the Phillies single season HBP record in 2007 with 25 plunks, and broke his own record again in 2008 with 27. He also holds the Citizens Bank Park record with 37. All but one of his plunks have come while playing 2nd base, but he did get plunked once as a pinch-hitter.

48 of Utley's 89 HBPs have been thrown by division opponents, with the Braves and Nationals leading with 13 each, and the Mets and Marlins close behind with 11. Tim Hudson his hit Utley the most, with a total of 4. Interestingly Jung Keun Bong, who had an excellent WBC for Korea this year, had a career Major League total of 2 hit batters - both in one game against Chase Utley. The full list is here.

Labels: Chase Utley

HBPs of Note: May 14, 2009

Yesterday's big HBP news was of course that Chase Utley got hit for the 89th time in his career, breaking the Phillies franchise record. Mike Lieberthal needed 1,174 games with the Phillies to accumulate 88 HBPs, but Utley got to 89 in only 766. That also moved Utley into the top 100 on the all time plunk list, in 6 way tie for 98th place. Ramon Troncoso was the pitcher responsible for donating the record breaker (which luckily didn't break anything else), and the record even made the news (sort of). The Phillies, by the way, are 6 plunks away from being hit 4,500 times in team history. UPDATE: more utley stuff here.

In other plunk action yesterday, Miguel Tejada collected his 98th career plunk, tieing him with Rickie Henderson for 68th place on the all time list, and Mike Sweeney got his 70th.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

Chase Utley got hit by a pitch for the 89th time in his Major League career today, which breaks Mike Lieberthal's record for the Phillies franchise.

In celebration of that achievement, here's the list of all 89 of Utley's HBPs. (More on this tomorrow)

1) Pedro Borbon - August 15, 2003 7th inning
2) Brett Tomko - August 24, 2003 2nd inning
3) Livan Hernandez - August 25, 2003 5th inning
4) Dan Wheeler - August 30, 2003 8th inning
5) Jung Bong - September 09, 2003 6th inning
6) Jung Bong - September 09, 2003 7th inning (2nd of the game, both by Bong)
7) Travis Smith - May 30, 2004 6th inning
8) Peter Munro - August 25, 2004 5th inning
9) Jeff Suppan - May 17, 2005 2nd inning
10) Tim Hudson - May 29, 2005 6th inning
11) Lance Cormier - June 06, 2005 8th inning
12) Horacio Ramirez - July 02, 2005 4th inning
13) Brad Penny - August 09, 2005 1st inning
14) Yhency Brazoban - August 10, 2005 9th inning
15) Tim Hudson - September 12, 2005 5th inning (2nd by Hudson)
16) Victor Zambrano - September 27, 2005 1st inning
17) John Patterson - October 01, 2005 1st inning
18) Mike Remlinger - April 10, 2006 6th inning
19) Dontrelle Willis - May 01, 2006 7th inning
20) Jamey Wright - May 06, 2006 3rd inning
21) Dave Williams - May 13, 2006 9th inning
22) Darren Oliver - May 23, 2006 16th inning
23) Ron Villone - June 20, 2006 7th inning
24) John Smoltz - July 21, 2006 3rd inning
25) Claudio Vargas - July 27, 2006 1st inning
26) Ricky Nolasco - July 28, 2006 4th inning
27) Eddie Guardado - August 12, 2006 9th inning
28) Ramon Ortiz - August 19, 2006 2nd inning
29) Will Ohman - August 23, 2006 8th inning
30) Oliver Perez - August 26, 2006 5th inning
31) Roger Clemens - September 04, 2006 4th inning
32) Sergio Mitre - April 06, 2007 3rd inning
33) Pedro Feliciano - April 11, 2007 8th inning
34) Brad Lidge - April 13, 2007 6th inning
35) Tom Glavine - April 17, 2007 3rd inning
36) Mike Stanton - April 20, 2007 8th inning
37) Mike Stanton - April 22, 2007 9th inning (2nd consecutive plunk by Stanton)
38) Micah Bowie - April 24, 2007 8th inning
39) Shawn Hill - April 26, 2007 7th inning
40) Steve Kline - May 03, 2007 9th inning
41) Doug Davis - May 07, 2007 1st inning
42) Randy Johnson - May 09, 2007 7th inning
43) Rich Hill - May 11, 2007 4th inning
44) David Bush - May 14, 2007 2nd inning
45) Tim Hudson - May 25, 2007 7th inning (3rd by Hudson)
46) Jason Stanford - June 19, 2007 1st inning
47) Matt Chico - July 25, 2007 4th inning
48) John Lannan - July 26, 2007 5th inning
49) Sergio Mitre - August 31, 2007 2nd inning (2nd by Mitre)
50) Rafael Soriano - September 05, 2007 9th inning
51) Chris Seddon - September 08, 2007 5th inning
52) Jeff Francis - September 13, 2007 2nd inning
53) Adam Wainwright - September 19, 2007 6th inning
54) Randy Flores - September 19, 2007 10th inning
55) Tim Hudson - September 26, 2007 3rd inning (4th by Hudson)
56) Arnie Munoz - September 28, 2007 7th inning
57) Oliver Perez - April 08, 2008 1st inning (2nd by Perez)
58) Oliver Perez - April 08, 2008 4th inning (3rd by Perez, 2nd in game)
59) Scott Schoeneweis - April 08, 2008 7th inning (3rd in game)
60) Jose Valverde - April 15, 2008 9th inning
61) Jack Taschner - May 04, 2008 7th inning
62) Scott Downs - May 17, 2008 7th inning
63) Brian Moehler - May 24, 2008 3rd inning
64) Edinson Volquez - June 04, 2008 5th inning
65) Jo-Jo Reyes - June 07, 2008 4th inning
66) Phil Stockman - June 07, 2008 9th inning (2nd in game)
67) Mitchell Boggs - June 15, 2008 5th inning
68) Renyel Pinto - July 18, 2008 8th inning
69) Renyel Pinto - July 20, 2008 7th inning (2nd consecutive plunk by Pinto)
70) Jesus Colome - July 31, 2008 8th inning
71) Jaime Garcia - August 01, 2008 8th inning
72) Renyel Pinto - August 05, 2008 7th inning (3rd by Pinto)
73) Brad Penny - August 13, 2008 1st inning (2nd by Penny)
74) Joe Beimel - August 13, 2008 6th inning (2nd in game)
75) Cha Seung Baek - August 17, 2008 3rd inning
76) Pedro Martinez - August 26, 2008 1st inning
77) Rich Harden - August 29, 2008 1st inning
78) Ted Lilly - August 30, 2008 1st inning
79) Tim Redding - September 01, 2008 1st inning
80) Odalis Perez - September 03, 2008 1st inning
81) Andrew Miller - September 08, 2008 7th inning
82) David Bush - September 14, 2008 6th inning (2nd by Bush)
83) Chris Volstad - September 21, 2008 4th inning
84) Saul Rivera - April 13, 2009 7th inning
85) Chris Volstad - April 25, 2009 6th inning (2nd by Volstad)
86) Michael Hinckley - April 27, 2009 6th inning
87) Mike Pelfrey - May 01, 2009 1st inning
88) Kyle Lohse - May 04, 2009 5th inning
89) Ramon Troncoso - May 14, 2009 10th inning

Labels: Chase Utley

HBPs of Note: May 4, 2009

You know who's been hit by a lot of pitches for the Phillies? Mike Lieberthal. But, after Kyle Lohse's 5th inning plunking of Chase Utley last night, Utley has been hit by just as many pitches for the Phillies as Lieberthal. They're tied for the franchise record at 88. Utley joins Derek Jeter as the only active players with their current team's HBP record. Carlos Delgado has the the Blue Jays record, but plays for the Mets, and Jason Kendall has the Pirates record, but plays for the Brewers now. Lohse reached 60 career hit batsmen with the plunk of Utley.

Speaking of Jeter, he got hit by Jonathan Papelbon last night, which makes 140 for his career. Only 17 of those have been thrown by the Red Sox, but Jason Kendall and Jason Giambi are the only other active players who have been plunked 17 times by one team.

And Speaking of Jason Giambi, he got hit by a Joe Saunders pitch yesterday, bringing his total to 161. That's Giambi's 15th plunk against the Angels, and the 2nd time this season that Joe Saunders his hit him.

Also yesterday, Austin Kearns recorded the 800th HBP by batter born in 1980, and Aaron Hill received the 1,200th HBP thrown in Rogres Centre, aka Skydome, and Fausto Carmona threw that one.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

... at getting hit by pitches.

Below is the list of the top 50 active batters, by their rate of HBPs per plate appearance. The last column is the number of plate appearances they'd need, at their current rate, to reach 288 HBPs, which would be the all time record, breaking Hughie Jennings 287 mark. All data is as of the morning of May 4, 2009, and a 5 HBP minimum is required to make this list.

	Player	HBP	PA	HBP per PA	PA per HBP	PA needed for record
1	Carlos Quentin(CWS)	45	1,126	0.0400	25.0	7,206
2	J.R. Towles(HOU)	8	220	0.0364	27.5	7,920
3	Jason LaRue(STL)	103	2,941	0.0350	28.6	8,223
4	Reed Johnson(CHC)	95	2,722	0.0349	28.7	8,252
5	Ryan Garko(CLE)	43	1,385	0.0310	32.2	9,276
6	Rickie Weeks(MIL)	62	2,015	0.0308	32.5	9,360
7	Jason Kendall(MIL)	235	7,768	0.0303	33.1	9,520
8	Corky Miller(CWS)	12	407	0.0295	33.9	9,768
9	Ryan Doumit(PIT)	34	1,227	0.0277	36.1	10,393
10	Chase Utley(PHI)	87	3,221	0.0270	37.0	10,663
11	Lastings Milledge(WSH)	27	1,004	0.0269	37.2	10,709
12	Ian Stewart(COL)	11	413	0.0266	37.5	10,813
13	Josh Willingham(WSH)	45	1,693	0.0266	37.6	10,835
14	David Eckstein(SD)	126	4,751	0.0265	37.7	10,859
15	Ramon Santiago(DET)	31	1,170	0.0265	37.7	10,870
16	Aaron Rowand(SF)	96	3,642	0.0264	37.9	10,926
17	Chris Iannetta(COL)	21	799	0.0263	38.0	10,958
18	Chris Coste(PHI)	18	706	0.0255	39.2	11,296
19	Alex Cora(NYM)	81	3,187	0.0254	39.3	11,332
20	Nick Green(BOS)	21	861	0.0244	41.0	11,808
21	Kelly Shoppach(CLE)	18	768	0.0234	42.7	12,288
22	Chris Burke(SD)	31	1,374	0.0226	44.3	12,765
23	Mike Redmond(MIN)	52	2,323	0.0224	44.7	12,866
24	Jose Guillen(KC)	124	5,576	0.0222	45.0	12,951
25	Nick Johnson(WSH)	57	2,636	0.0216	46.2	13,319
26	Edwin Encarnacion(CIN)	41	1,912	0.0214	46.6	13,431
27	Kenji Johjima(SEA)	32	1,499	0.0213	46.8	13,491
28	Matt Treanor(DET)	18	846	0.0213	47.0	13,536
29	David DeJesus(KC)	61	2,874	0.0212	47.1	13,569
30	Jason Giambi(OAK)	160	7,864	0.0203	49.2	14,155
31	A.J. Pierzynski(CWS)	85	4,243	0.0200	49.9	14,376
32	Nate McLouth(PIT)	31	1,563	0.0198	50.4	14,521
33	Carlos Delgado(NYM)	169	8,627	0.0196	51.0	14,702
34	Melvin Mora(BAL)	102	5,211	0.0196	51.1	14,713
35	Emmanuel Burriss(SF)	7	358	0.0196	51.1	14,729
36	Jerry HairstonJr.(CIN)	63	3,238	0.0195	51.4	14,802
37	Chris Duffy(MIL)	15	773	0.0194	51.5	14,842
38	Kevin Youkilis(BOS)	46	2,375	0.0194	51.6	14,870
39	Angel Berroa(NYY)	53	2,762	0.0192	52.1	15,009
40	Ryan Freel(BAL)	42	2,190	0.0192	52.1	15,017
41	Jason Bartlett(TB)	34	1,795	0.0189	52.8	15,205
42	Xavier Nady(NYY)	46	2,463	0.0187	53.5	15,421
43	Prince Fielder(MIL)	41	2,196	0.0187	53.6	15,426
44	Travis Hafner(CLE)	57	3,073	0.0185	53.9	15,527
45	Kevin Kouzmanoff(SD)	25	1,361	0.0184	54.4	15,679
46	Shane Victorino(PHI)	33	1,807	0.0183	54.8	15,770
47	Matt Diaz(ATL)	19	1,047	0.0181	55.1	15,870
48	Alex Gordon(KC)	21	1,197	0.0175	57.0	16,416
49	Mike Napoli(LAA)	16	927	0.0173	57.9	16,686
50	Fernando Tatis(NYM)	51	3,054	0.0167	59.9	17,246

Labels: Carlos Quentin, Chase Utley, Jason Kendall, Kevin Kouzmanoff

HBPs of note: May 1, 2009

Chase Utley got hit by a Mike Pelfrey pitch yesterday, bring Utley's career total to 87. He's just one plunk away from tying the Phillies career record, currently at 88 by Mike Lieberthal. Lieberthal needed 13 seasons in Philadelphia to accumulate his 88 HBPs, but Utley is just a month into his 7th season. Lieberthal has held this record since July 19, 2005 when he got hit for the 81st time, passing Ed Delehanty.

Mark Buehrle threw his 50th career plunk yesterday, hitting Texas DH Hank Blaylock, and becoming only the 6th White Sox pitcher to reach the 50 hit batsmen mark. 9 of those plunks have been thrown at designated hitters.

Scott Rolen also got plunked yesterday, which gives him a career total of 107. He moved ahead of Barry Bonds on the all time plunk list, into a tie for 53rd place with Pete Rose and Wally Schang.

And, Nick Swisher is now the all time plunk leader at New Yankee Stadium, with 2. That record might not last long.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

Here's the list of all the current major league ballparks, and their HBP record holders in games at those parks. As of April 28, 2009.

Park	Record
Angel Stadium of Anaheim	Brian Downing - 50
AT&T Park (Giants)	Barry Bonds - 27
Busch Stadium (Cardinals)	David Eckstein - 13
Chase Field (Diamondbacks)	Luis Gonzalez - 30
Citi Field (Mets)	Jason Kendall - 1, Gary Sheffield - 1, Wil Nieves - 1, Ryan Church - 1, Josh Willingham - 1, Hanley Ramirez - 1
Citizens Bank Park (Phillies)	Chase Utley - 35
Comerica Park (Tigers)	Brandon Inge - 24
Coors Field (Rockies)	Larry Walker - 55
Dodger Stadium	Alex Cora - 26
Dolphin Stadium (Marlins)	Alex Gonzalez - 32
Fenway Park (Red Sox)	Carlton Fisk* - 45
Great American Ball Park (Reds)	Jason LaRue - 33
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Twins)	Chuck Knoblauch - 39
Kauffman Stadium (Royals)	Mike Macfarlane - 44
Miller Park (Brewers)	Geoff Jenkins - 32
Minute Maid Park (Astros)	Craig Biggio - 56
Nationals Park	Nick Johnson - 5
Oakland Coliseum (A's)	Jason Giambi - 38
Oriole Park at Camden Yards	Brady Anderson - 66
PETCO Park (Padres)	Khalil Greene - 13
PNC Park (Pirates)	Craig Wilson - 52
Progressive Field (Indians)	Travis Hafner - 33
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington	Alex Rodriguez - 29
Rogers Centre (Blue Jays)	Carlos Delgado - 61
Safeco Field (Mariners)	Ichiro Suzuki - 21
Tropicana Field (Rays)	Jonny Gomes - 26
Turner Field (Braves)	Andruw Jones - 42
U.S. Cellular Field (White Sox)	Frank Thomas - 35
Wrigley Field (Cubs)	Ernie Banks* - 35
New Yankee Stadium	Johnny Damon - 1, Mark Teixeira - 1, Hideki Matsui - 1, Shin-Soo Choo - 1, Nick Swisher - 1, Kelly Shoppach - 1

*- Not confirmed. There is a chance that someone might have been plunked more at these oldest parks, just not a very good chance. This is at least the post-1960 People just didn't get hit by a lot of pitches for the major portion of the 20th century.

Kevin Kouzmanoff is one plunk behind Khalil Green for the PETCO record. Rickie Weeks could catch Geoff Jenkins for the Miller Park record with anothe 6 plunks at home. Several players are within one plunk of the Nationals Park record, including Chase Utley, who only visits that park. Kenji Johjima is also fairly close behind Ichiro for the Safeco record, with 17.

Labels: Chase Utley, Jason Kendall, Kevin Kouzmanoff

HBPs of Note: April 27, 2009

Jason Kendall got plunked twice yesterday, bringing his career total to 235, but he had never before been plunked by his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. He's now been plunked by all 30 major league teams - the only other player to accomplish that feat was Rondell White. That was Kendall's 10th career game with 2 HBPs, and his first 2 plunk game since July 17, 2005. Jesse Chavez became the 183 pitcher to plunk Jason Kendall, and Tyler Yates became the 184th.

Chase Utley collected his 86th career plunk yesterday, leaving him 2 short of tying the Phillies franchise record. Washington's Michael Hinkley contributed that plunk.

Tim Wakefield threw his 167th career plunk, breaking the Red Sox franchise record for career plunking, which was 166 by Tim Wakefield. He hit Cleveland's Shin-Soo Choo, who became the first Korean born player plunked by Wakefield. Tim Wakefield has now plunked batters from 10 different countries.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note, Jason Kendall

HBPs of Note: April 25, 2009

Chase Utley got hit by a pitch yesterday, giving him a career total of 85 plunks. Only Mike Lieberthal has been plunked more times in a Phillies uniform, with 88.

Chan Ho Park hit another batter, bringing his career total to 132, which is 131 more plunks than Matt Daley, who threw his first career plunk yesterday in his first major league appearance (he waited for the 4th batter).

Kevin Youkilis got hit by a pitch thrown by the Yankees, which is the 9th time he's been hit by them - but that's still one short of cracking the top 5 list for active batters being plunked by the Yankees. Nick Green also got plunked for the Red Sox, which ties him for the league lead at 4 plunks. He's 4 plunks ahead of Don Baylor's Red Sox (and American League) single season record pace, because when Baylor got hit 35 times in 1986, he did not get his first plunk until May 1st. Green's plunk was also the 20th of his career.

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

Jason Giambi and Rickie Weeks both got hit by pitches yesterday, making them the first two to be hit 3 times this season. Giambi's plunk was the 160th of his career, and Weeks is up to 62.

Chase Utley collected his first HBP of the 2009 season after leading the majors in 2008 and 2007. He's up to 84 in his career, which is 4 short of tying the Phillies franchise record.

Reed Johnson got hit for the 2nd consecutive day, bringing his career total to 94. Johnson led the majors in HBPs in 2006.

50 of the 79 HBPs this season have occurred in odd numbered innings. 14 batters have been hit in the 7th inning but only 3 have been plunked in the 6th.

Edinson Volquez and Chien-Ming Wang both achieved their 20th hit batsmen yesterday, and Saul Rivera threw his 10th (along with his 9th).

Labels: Chase Utley, HBPs of note

Chase Utley got hit by pitch for the 26th plunk of the season, during yesterdays game against the Brewers, breaking the single season record for the Phillies, which Utley set last year. He's just the third left-handed batter ever to get hit by 26 or more pitches in a season, behind Fernando Vina (28 in 2000) and Steve Evans (31 in 1910). Both Evans and Vina played for the Cardinals when they got hit that many times, so Chase Utley is the first non-Cardinal ever to get hit 26 times in a season while batting exclusively left-handed. (Dan McGann and Tommy Tucker got hit that many times in a season as switch-hitters).


If you ever wondered exactly where Chase Utley got hit all those times, MLB.com's gameday has the data on where each plunk was in space as it crossed the front of home plate. Below is that data, in chart form, showing each of Utley's 26 HBPs. The units on the graph are inches, and the red box is the approximate location of the strikezone. Sadly, the dots don't quite draw a perfect silhouette of Chase Utley.

Labels: Chase Utley

Chase Utley has taken 25 plunks for the team this season, but unfortunately the Phillies haven't been able to put them to very good use. Those 25 plunks have come in 21 games, and the Phillies have just 10 wins against 11 loses in games when Chase Utley has been plunked. Of the 24 players with over 10 hbps this year (as of Sept. 9th), only 2 have a worse winning percentage in games with an hbp. The Phillies are, however 2-1 when Utley gets hit at least twice, and 1-0 when he gets hit 3 times in a game, so obviously he needs to get hit more to help his team win.

Aramis Ramirez has been the best at insuring victory for his Cubs by getting hit by pitches. The Cubs are 10-1 in the 11 games in which Ramirez has been plunked. So he's won just as many games when he's been plunked as Utley, but has had 10 less losses while being struck by pitches.
Nate McLouth has seen his efforts at getting hit by pitches wasted the most, with the Pirates winning pct dipping to .272 in the 11 games in which he's been hit by a pitch. Finding a way to make the Pirates winning percentage even worse is an impressive feat in itself.

Here's all the players with over 10 hbps (as of Sept 9th), and the win-loss records in games when they get hit:

Player	HBP	W-L	PCT
Aramis Ramirez (CHC)	11	10-1	0.909
Prince Fielder (MIL)	11	7-2	0.778
Kevin Kouzmanoff (SD)	12	9-3	0.75
Jason Kendall (MIL)	12	9-3	0.75
Melvin Mora (BAL)	11	8-3	0.727
Kevin Youkilis (BOS)	11	8-3	0.727
Reed Johnson (CHC)	12	8-3	0.727
Jeff Francoeur (ATL)	10	7-3	0.7
Chris Iannetta (COL)	13	9-4	0.692
Aaron Rowand (SF)	14	8-4	0.667
Alex Rodriguez (NYY)	14	8-5	0.615
Kurt Suzuki (OAK)	10	6-4	0.6
Edwin Encarnacion (CIN)	10	6-4	0.6
Scott Rolen (TOR)	10	6-4	0.6
Carlos Quentin (CHW)	20	12-8	0.6
Josh Willingham (FLO)	12	6-4	0.6
Rickie Weeks (MIL)	14	7-5	0.583
Jason Giambi (NYY)	20	11-8	0.579
Lastings Milledge (WAS)	13	7-6	0.538
Carlos Pena (TB)	11	5-5	0.5
Ryan Garko (CLE)	14	7-7	0.5
Chase Utley (PHI)	25	10-11	0.476
David Dellucci (CLE)	11	5-6	0.455
Nate McLouth (PIT)	12	3-8	0.273

Mark Grudzielanek (KC), Jose Molin (NYY), Mike Napoli (LAA), Marco Scutaro (TOR) and Gerald Liard (TEX) are all tied with the most HBPs this year without having lost a game in which they got hit by a pitch. Surely getting plunked is that much more painful when you lose, but those 5 guys are all 5-0 in the games in which they've been hit by pitches.

Labels: Carlos Quentin, Chase Utley, Jason Kendall, Kevin Kouzmanoff

Chase Utley got hit again last night in Philadelphia against the Marlins, making that his 25th of the season. That ties the single season record for the Phillies, set last year by Chase Utley. He's the first major league player to get hit at least 25 times in back to back seasons since Jason Kendall racked up 31 in both 1997 and 1998. Utley is only the 7th player ever with back to back 25 plunk seasons. Craig Biggio had 27 plunks in 1996 and followed that with 34 in 1997. Ron Hunt got hit 25 times in 1968 and 1969, and then 26 in 1970, 50 in 1971 and 26 in 1972. Before that you need to go back to 1898 and the great Hughie Jennings, who got hit over 25 times each season from 1894 to 1898. Curt Welch had back to back 30+ plunk seasons in 1891 and 1892, and Tommy Tucker stayed over 25 plunks from 1889 to 1892. So, prior to Utley joining the group, the average career HBPs for batters with back to back 25 plunk seasons was 248, and includes 5 of the top 7 on the all time HBP list. Also, Chase Utley bats left handed - none of those other guys did, except Tucker who was a switch hitter.

Chase Utley also needs just 8 more HBPs to break the career record for the Phillies, which is currently 88 by Mike Leiberthal.

Labels: Chase Utley