Plunk Everyone

HBPs of Note: April 30, 2009

Vicente Padilla of the Rangers and Julian Tavarez of the Nationals both threw their 95th career hit batsmen yesterday. Padilla plunked A's catcher Kurt Suzuki, for the 15th of his career, and and Tavarez hit Cardinals catcher Jason Larue, who's been hit 103 times in his career. Larue now has 99 plunks for NL Central division teams, which is one behind Jeff Bagwell for 4th place on the NL Central career HBP list. And 158 plunks behind the NL Central record. Padilla's plunking of Suzuki was the 15th time he's hit a catcher, and Tavarez's plunk of Larue was the 18th time he's hit a catcher. They're 3rd and 5th among active pitchers in catcher plunking, and the number 4 guy on that list is Jeff Suppan. Not to be left out, Suppan hit Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder, making that 16 catchers plunked in his career, and 85 hit batters in all.

Nationals pitcher Daniel Cabrera got plunked for the first time in his career yesterday. He's hit 52 batters in his career, but it's nice that he's still willing to take one for the team.

Labels: Daniel Cabrera, HBPs of note

Obviously, the idea of a fantasy baseball league where the only players chosen were pitchers and the only stats tracked were hit batters while facing the New York Yankees is completely insane, and I don't know anyone who would participate in such a league, much less run one... but... if you were in such a league, you'd be feeling pretty lucky right now if you drafted Daniel Cabrera. Daniel Cabrera has hit 5 Yankees - Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez twice each, and Derek Jeter. You will note, however, that he has not plunked Melky Cabrera. Not just this season, but ever. He's never plunked Orlando, Miguel or Asdrubel Cabrera either.

It's not just the Cabreras either - pitchers seem to have some reluctance to plunk a batter with the same last name as the themselves. No pitcher in 2008 has hit a batter with the same last name as him, though a batter has faced a pitcher with the same last name in 93 plate appearances this year. No one did it in 2007 either, in 124 same-name plate appearances. The last time a pitcher plunked a batter with the same last name was just over 2 years ago, on August 22, 2006 when Josh Johnson hit Nick Johnson. In the past 20 seasons (1989 through 2008) There have been just 28 incidents of batters getting hit by pitches thrown by pitchers with the same last name, and one fourth of them were Johnsons plunking Johnsons. Randy and Josh Johnson combined to hit Nick and Reed Johnson 7 times. Brian, Mitch and Woody Williams plunked Matt and Gerald Willaims 4 times, and Pedro, Ramon and Dennis Martinez hit Edgar and Dave Martinez a total of 4 times as well.
Here's the chart:

Last name	Pitchers	Batters	Total HBP
Johnson	Randy, Josh	Reed, Nick	7
Williams	Mitch, Woody, Brian	Matt, Gerald	4
Martinez	Pedro, Ramon, Dennis	Edgar, Dave	4
Gonzalez	Geremi	Juan, Alex	3
Young	Chris, Anthony	Dmitri, Eric	2
Wilson	Paul	Craig	1
Lopez	Aquilino	Luis	1
Hamilton	Joey	Darryl	1
Finley	Chuck	Steve	1
Gibson	Paul	Kirk	1
Redman	Mark	Tike	1
Smith	Bryn	Lonnie	1
Soriano	Rafael	Alfonso	1

For batters, getting hit by a pitcher with the same first name as you is much more likely. That's happened 231 times, including 6 this season. Pitchers named Mike seem to have taken particular pleasure in plunking batters named Mike with a total of 58 since 1989. That's well ahead of the next closest names, Jeff (17) and Mark (16). In the past 20 seasons, 25.1% of incidents involving a batter getting plunked by a pitcher with the same first name have been Mikes hitting Mikes, and this started long before ESPN Radio began airing Mike and Mike in the Morning. However, no Mikes have plunked any other Mikes in 2008. Here's the full list of first names that have plunked themselves since 1989: Mike - 58, Jeff - 17, Mark - 16, John - 13, Jason - 11, Jose - 7, Matt - 7, Kevin - 7, Brian - 7, Chris - 6, Scott - 6, Tim - 6, Ryan - 6, David - 5, Carlos - 4, Aaron - 4, Joe - 4, Brad - 3, Greg - 3, Todd - 3, Tom - 2, Steve - 2, Paul - 2, Miguel - 2, Chad - 2, Charlie - 2, Eric - 2, Dave - 2, A.J. - 1, Darren - 1, Felipe - 1, Frank - 1, Doug - 1, Brandon - 1, Bill - 1, Orlando - 1, Pat - 1, Larry - 1, Jorge - 1, Josh - 1, Juan - 1, Jay - 1, Jim - 1, Ramon - 1, Rick - 1, Ricky - 1, Shane - 1, Shawn - 1, Tony - 1, Travis - 1


Going back to 1960, there hasn't been a pitcher who plunked a batter with the same first AND last name, though if Chris Young of the Padres could hit Chris Young of the Diamondbacks, we could take care of that. Unfortunately they don't play each other again this season.


NOTE: For first names, we're only working with the first names each player most commonly went by, or are the one they're listed under on Baseball-reference.com or Retrosheet.org. Bobs hitting Roberts or Michaels hitting Mikes or Charlies hitting Chazs don't count.

Labels: Daniel Cabrera

It's often been said around baseball that without pitchers nobody would get hit by pitches. Daniel Cabrera of the Orioles is one such pitcher. He's hit 17 batters so far this season, leading the Major Leagues. Showing a tremendous sense of balance, he's hit 9 right handed batters and 8 lefties. He has also plunked an impressive 6 members of the American League All-Star Team, including the entire starting infield. He's been relatively efficient in hitting batters, with opposing batters seeing just 3.1 pitches when they get hit. That's just a little bit below the league average. And, he's still the only pitcher in the majors who has hit a batter on every day of the week this season. According to MLB Gameday's pitch f/x data, Cabrera's average start and end speeds on the pitches with which he hit's batters are the fastest in the majors, among pitchers who have hit at least 10 batters. (Although data is only available for 13 of his 17 plunks). He hits lefties slightly harder than right handers, with plunks to lefties averaging 93.5 mph leaving his hand, and slowing to 85 mph at impact. Pitches Cabrera threw to hit right-handers have averaged 92.5 mph to start, and hitting at about 84.4 mph. Those plunks to right handers may be a bit slower, but they also tend to be higher - averaging 4'6" off the ground, while lefties have been plunked down low by Cabrera - about 2'7" off the ground. (The league wide average height of plunks thrown by right handed pitcher to right handed batters is about 3'8", and 2'4" when righties hit lefty batters).

If Cabrera can hit 4 more batters, he'll break the Orioles single season franchise record. That record is 20, by Barney Pelty, who set the mark for the 1904 St. Louis Browns, which moved to Baltimore and took up the Orioles name in 1954. At just 3 hit batters behind his franchise record, Daniel Cabrera is the closest of any pitcher this year to breaking such a mark. The only other real contenders are Roy Halladay, who could break Chris Carpenter's 2001 Blue Jays record of 16, and Oliver Perez who is similarly 5 plunks from tying the Mets record, set by Pedro Astacio in 2002. Back in July, Micah Owings was on pace to challenge Randy Johnson's single season record with the Diamondbacks, but he has since been sent to the minors, and is rumored to be the player to be named later in the Adam Dunn deal, which would send him to the Reds. Owings could possibly still be brought back up to the majors before the end of the year, and hit 7 more batters to break Johnson's record, but you have to wonder if Randy is pulling some GM strings to protect that record.

Here's the full list of 2008 team leaders in hitting batters, along with the single season franchise records:

Team	2008 Leader	Hit batters	Franchise Record
Orioles	Daniel Cabrera	17	20 by Barney Pelty in 1904
D-backs	Micah Owings	12	18 by Randy Johnson in 2001
Mets	Oliver Perez	11	16 by Pedro Astacio in 2002
Blue Jays	Roy Halladay	11	16 by Chris Carpenter in 2001
White Sox	Gavin Floyd	8	16 by Clark Griffith in 1902, and Jim Scott in 1909
Royals	Brian Bannister	6	13 by Jim Colborn in 1977, Mike Boddicker in 1991, and Zack Greinke in 2005
Padres	Randy Wolf	8	16 by Matt Clement in 2000
Astros	Roy Oswalt	7	16 by Jack Billingham in 1971, and Darryl Kile in 1996
Rays	James Shields	10	20 by Victor Zambrano in 2003
Rangers	Vicente Padilla	9	19 by Charlie Hough in 1987
Red Sox	Tim Wakefield	9	20 by Howard Ehmke in 1923, and Bronson Arroyo in 2004
Rockies	Jorge De La Rosa, Ubaldo Jimenez	7	17 by Pedro Astacio in 1998
Braves	Dave Bush	9	20 by Jamey Wright in 2001
Mariners	Jarrod Washburn	7	18 by Randy Johnson in 1992
Tigers	Justin Verlander	10	23 by Howard Ehmke in 1922
Nationals	Odalis Perez, John Lannan	6	18 by Ramon Ortiz in 2006
Twins	Nick Blackburn	7	20 by Bill Carrick in 1901, Case Patten in 1904, and Walter Johnson in 1923
Angels	John Lackey	7	21 by Tom Murphy in 1969
Indians	Aaron Laffey	9	24 by Otto Hess in 1906
Phillies	Kyle Kendrick	12	28 by JackTaylor in 1897
Marlins	Ricky Nolasco, Mark Hendrickson	5	19 by DontrelleWillis in 2006
Cubs	Jason Marquis, Kerry Wood	7	24 by NixeyCallahan in 1899
Cardinals	Braden Looper	8	27 by WillieSudhoff in 1898
Yankees	Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte	6	26 by JackWarhop in 1909
Pirates	Paul Maholm	7	27 by PinkHawley in 1897
A's	Dana Eveland	9	32 by ChickFraser in 1901
Reds	Edinson Volquez	11	35 by WillWhite in 1884
Braves	Jeff Bennett	6	30 by Vic Willis in 1898 and 1899
Giants	Keiichi Yabu	6	37 by Ed Doheny in 1899
Dodgers	Chad Billingsley	6	41 by Joe McGinnity in 1900

Labels: Daniel Cabrera, Pitching Records

Yesterday, Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera hit Joe Inglett of the Blue Jays, to improve his league leading total of batters plunked to 14. That pitch was also Cabrera's first plunk thrown on a Thursday this season, and it makes him the first pitcher in 2008 to hit a batter on every day of the week. Last season, only 2 pitchers hit a batter on every day of the week - Bronson Arroyo and Jeff Suppan - but in 2006, 10 pitchers accomplished that feat. This is the first season Cabrera has hit a batter on every day of the week, and he's the 39th pitcher to do so this century. Since 2000, 5 pitchers have hit batters on every day of the week in 2 different seasons, but none have done it more than twice.

Jeff Bennett, Aaron Laffey, Roy Halladay and Micah Owings are all one plunk away from joining Cabrera, with at least one batter hit on every day of the week. Owings and Laffey are only missing a Thursday plunk, while Hallady hasn't hit anyone on Monday and Bennett has missed every batter he's faced on Tuesday. It hasn't helped that none of them have pitched on those days - so each of them has hit a batter on every day of the week that they've actually had the opportunity.


On the batting side, the only players who have been hit on every day of the week this year are Jason Giambi and Kevin Kouzmanoff. Giambi completed his set of days with an hbp on July 2nd, but Kouzmanoff had been hit on every day of the week by June 8th.



In other news, espn.com has this article about a plunk fueled brawl in the minors between the affiliates of the Cubs and the Reds. It does not, however, adequately explain how a pitcher tried to throw a pitch into the opposing dugout and missed it entirely, striking a fan. Nice work, Julio Castillo - you displayed a total lack of sportsmanship and pitching ability at the same time, and you managed to get arrested for it. As usual, if everyone would just take their base and shut their mouths, we wouldn't have this problem.

Labels: Daniel Cabrera