Plunk Everyone

Most of this year's playoff races have been over for a long time, with the exception of a couple of teams torturing their fans by refusing to clinch their divisions, but there are some statistical races of note that could still come to exciting conclusions in these last three games, if you're willing to care about some things that maybe not everyone is excited about.

First, and possibly most importantly, is the American League Most Plunkable Player race. Chase Utley has the NL locked up, but the AL race looks like this:
Kelly Shoppach - 18
Brandon Inge - 17
Shin-Soo Choo - 17
Kevin Youkilis - 16

It might be tough for Youkilis to take 3 plunks in meaningless games while resting for a playoff chase, so he's probably not going to do catch Shoppach. Brandon Inge, on the other hand, is still trying to clinch a division title for the Tigers, so he might be doing whatever it takes to get on base. So there could be an exciting finish there.

And, since this is Friday, lets look at the foul balls race. Brian Roberts is leading the American League, and has the overall lead with 553 foul balls this year. He's got a commanding lead over 2nd place AL foul ball hitter Carl Crawford who has 517. But in the NL, Andre Ethier, Todd Helton and Pablo Sandoval are all close with 532, 530 and 523. Just for fun, imagine a world in which suddenly people cared about this and Todd Helton went out on Sunday with the sole purpose of winning the NL Foul Ball title. Like when David Robinson wanted to beat Shaq for the scoring title in 1994 and scored 71 points. Just Todd Helton out there fouling balls off all afternoon. How long would the other team put up with that before just throwing at him or walking him? Could he work through three relief pitchers in one plate appearance? Would the sports pundit world have to tranquilized by a special team of government operatives sent out to save the industry from itself?

Another close one you might not have noticed is the Sacrifice Fly race in both leagues - in the NL, Bengie Molina has a slim lead with 11 sac flies, but Todd Helton and Casey Blake are right behind him with 10. In the AL, Orlando Cabrera, Marlon Byrd and Nick Markakis are all tied with 10. So there could be an exciting moment this weekend when one of these guys has a runner on third and is desperately hoping his foul ball to center field comes down on the warning track for a title winning sacrifice fly instead of just one more unimportant home run. It could happen.

On the pitching side of things, Dave Bush is just one plunk ahead of Johnny Cueto for the National League plunking title with 15 hit batters, so that could lead to some excitment with both scheduled to pitch on Saturday. On the AL side, Joba Chamberlain leads the league with 12 plunks, but Kevin Millwood and Matt Garza have 11, and Tim Wakefield, Ervin Santana, Ricky Romero, and AJ Burnett have 10 each.

Back in the generally unheralded batting statistics, Ryan Howard looks to have locked up the 2009 NL title for total swings of the bat with 1371 so far. Mark Reynolds is next with 1247, so he probably can't catch Howard unless he goes on a foul ball tear like Todd Helton is planning. In the AL, Aaron Hill has swung his bat 1,266 times this year, which sounds tiring, but he's only 37 swings ahed of Derek Jeter. Jeter has an outside show at catching Hill. Back in the National League, Ryan Howard has more swings but he trails Mark Reynolds by 15 whiffs. Reynolds has swung and missed a league leading 460 times, while Howard has whiffed 445 times. They're both far ahead of American League leader Carlos Pena who has missed 346 times but isn't far ahead of Russel Branyan's 337 misses. Reynolds leads qualified batters with a miss percentage of .369 - he misses the ball with 36.9% of his swings, while his closest competitor, Ryan Howard misses at a .325 clip. Chris Davis leads the AL in miss rate at .364, and probably won't be caught by Miguel Olivo who has missed at .355. On the other end of that same idea, Placido Polanco has led the American League this year, making contact with 93.71% of his swings, though Marco Scutaro is right behind him at 93.67% so that's race could go to either of them. In the NL, Luis Castillo has made contact 93.63% of the times he's tried to, with Juan Piere right behind him at 93.57%. Dustin Pedroia is fifth overall in the majors, and has a shot to catch the AL leaders with his contact percentage at 93.41%.

In the statistical category I call BACON, Ichiro Suzuki still has a chance to be the first player in Bacon history to break .900. Though Bacon history only goes back to 2005, because that's all I've done with it. Ichiro made it until this week before going hitless in two consecutive games. In the past 5 seasons, no other players has had fewer than 3 instances of back to back hitless games. That's just some amazing consistency there. In the NL, there is a tight race for the top BACON among qualified batters (500 plate appeances, about) - Felipe Lopez and Hanley Ramirez are both at .796 right now, and Albert Pujols is right behind them at .786.


And one last thing to watch for is whether or not Jeff Weaver will plunk anyone to catch Tim Wakefield for the most plunks of the 00s. Wakefield has hit 107 batters from 2000 to 2009, and is likely done for the season unless someone poisons the rest of the red sox staff and no one else can pitch or something. Weaver may get an opportunity in any of the final games, and has hit 106 batters. He would probably have an easy win in this category if he had played at all in 2008.

Labels: foul ball friday

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

Last week I confidently wrote that I was going to post the major league pitching leaders in the category of foul balls allowed, and that I fully expected no one to care about that. But, it turns out that commenter KL Snow (from Brewcrewball) almost cared about it, but was more interested in which pitchers give up the fewest foul balls.

So, here are the ten pitchers who have given up the fewest fouls this year, with a minimum of 500 batters faced:

Pitcher	Fouls	Total Pitches	Total Batters Faced
Tim Wakefield (BOS)	280	1841	528
Jason Berken (BAL)	291	1834	501
Fausto Carmona (CLE)	309	1973	513
Ervin Santana (LAA)	331	2058	544
Micah Owings (CIN)	343	2010	521
Brad Bergesen (BAL)	343	1864	519
Joba Chamberlain (NYY)	346	2480	645
Francisco Liriano (MIN)	347	2187	579
Derek Holland (TEX)	349	1964	538
Scott Richmond (TOR)	350	2043	528

And here are the ten pitchers who have the lowest number of foul balls, as a percentage of their total pitches thrown (fouls/total pitches):

Pitcher	Fouls as pct of pitches	Fouls	Total Pitches	Total Batters Faced
Joba Chamberlain (NYY)	13.95%	346	2480	645
Livan Hernandez (WSH)	13.98%	378	2704	732
Trevor Cahill (OAK)	14.44%	410	2840	729
Ryan Dempster (CHC)	14.61%	401	2744	729
Jason Marquis (COL)	14.71%	424	2883	824
Bronson Arroyo (CIN)	15.04%	462	3071	842
Tim Wakefield (BOS)	15.21%	280	1841	528
Chris Carpenter (STL)	15.60%	371	2378	674
Fausto Carmona (CLE)	15.66%	309	1973	513
John Lackey (LAA)	15.68%	395	2519	686

Now obviously, some of those foul balls count as strikes, so lets see what happens if we exclude the strikes and just look at non-strike fouls - or foul balls hit with 2 strikes in the count. Here are the pitchers who have given up the fewest non-strike fouls:

Pitcher	Non-strike fouls	Total Pitches	Total Batters Faced
Jason Berken (BAL)	87	1834	501
Tim Wakefield (BOS)	96	1841	528
Ian Snell (SEA)	108	2222	572
Ervin Santana (LAA)	113	2058	544
Jeff Suppan (MIL)	114	2401	658
Brad Bergesen (BAL)	114	1864	519
Francisco Liriano (MIN)	117	2187	579
Todd Wellemeyer (STL)	118	2019	542
Aaron Cook (COL)	120	2243	628
Fausto Carmona (CLE)	123	1973	513

And, non-strike fouls as a percentage of total pitches:

Pitcher	Non-strike Fouls as pct of pitches	Non-strike Fouls	Total Pitches	Total Batters Faced
Jason Marquis (COL)	4.30%	124	2883	824
Livan Hernandez (WSH)	4.62%	125	2704	732
Ryan Dempster (CHC)	4.63%	127	2744	729
Trevor Cahill (OAK)	4.65%	132	2840	729
Jason Berken (BAL)	4.74%	87	1834	501
Jeff Suppan (MIL)	4.75%	114	2401	658
Ian Snell (SEA)	4.86%	108	2222	572
Joba Chamberlain (NYY)	5.08%	126	2480	645
Yovani Gallardo (MIL)	5.15%	161	3125	776
Bronson Arroyo (CIN)	5.18%	159	3071	842

So those guys are all pretty good about not throwing a lot of pitches that get wasted or fought off and don't count for anything, except an increase pitch count. While we're here, we might as well see who gets the most pitches fouled off after two strikes.
Here are the league leaders in non-strike fouls:

Pitcher	Non-strike fouls	Total Pitches	Total Batters Faced
Scott Baker (MIN)	319	2884	733
Justin Verlander (DET)	302	3434	868
Max Scherzer (ARI)	277	2855	695
Randy Wolf (LAD)	276	3027	792
Cliff Lee (PHI)	251	3299	901
Jon Lester (BOS)	241	3136	780
Cole Hamels (PHI)	236	2866	742
Clayton Kershaw (LAD)	230	2808	657
Ricky Nolasco (FLA)	229	2714	705
Doug Davis (ARI)	222	3137	802

And, the leader in non-strike fouls as a percentage of total pitches:

Pitcher	Non-strike Fouls as pct of pitches	Non-strike Fouls	Total Pitches	Total Batters Faced
Scott Baker (MIN)	11.06%	319	2884	733
Max Scherzer (ARI)	9.70%	277	2855	695
Randy Wolf (LAD)	9.12%	276	3027	792
Scott Kazmir (LAA)	8.89%	208	2339	583
Justin Verlander (DET)	8.79%	302	3434	868
Ricky Nolasco (FLA)	8.44%	229	2714	705
Cole Hamels (PHI)	8.23%	236	2866	742
Clayton Kershaw (LAD)	8.19%	230	2808	657
Johan Santana (NYM)	7.84%	202	2575	702
Brad Penny (SF)	7.80%	209	2681	672

(And, because I feel the need to say something about people getting hit by pitches,)
Jorge De La Rosa leads the league in giving up non-strike fouls in plate appearances where he eventually hit the batter, with 6. He's hit 7 batters, but he gave up 6 non-strike fouls to those batters he plunked - the most he gave up in a single plate appearance was 4. On April 25th, Rockies rookie Matt Daley gave up 5 non-strike fouls to Casey Blake before getting tired of that game and hitting him. That's the most this season, in a single plate appearance that resulted in a plunking.

Labels: foul ball friday

Ever wonder which pitchers have the greatest number of their pitches turned into foul balls? No? It sounds completely irrelevant to your fantasy league team, and won't help you figure out exactly what the problem is with your favorite team so you can impress sports radio hosts by calling in and telling them?
Well... here it is anyway.

Total fouls by pitcher, for the 2009 season:

Pitcher	Fouls	Total Pitches	Foul Pct
Justin Verlander	731	3330	22.0%
Scott Baker	672	2783	24.1%
Cliff Lee	663	3175	20.9%
Randy Wolf	628	2932	21.4%
Edwin Jackson	588	2974	19.8%
Jon Lester	577	3031	19.0%
C.C. Sabathia	574	3196	18.0%
Roy Halladay	565	2951	19.1%
Johan Santana	561	2575	21.8%
Matt Cain	559	2891	19.3%
Matt Garza	553	2982	18.5%
Josh Beckett	551	2974	18.5%
Max Scherzer	546	2747	19.9%
Clayton Kershaw	546	2808	19.4%
Kevin Millwood	541	2883	18.8%
Roy Oswalt	536	2709	19.8%
Wandy Rodriguez	535	2955	18.1%
Aaron Harang	531	2666	19.9%
Felix Hernandez	527	3083	17.1%
Brad Penny	524	2588	20.2%

Here are the top pitchers by fouls as a percent of total pitches (500 pitch minimum):

Pitcher	Fouls	Total Pitches	Foul Pct
Russ Springer	263	990	26.6%
Matt Daley	187	725	25.8%
Rafael Betancourt	196	780	25.1%
Scott Baker	672	2783	24.1%
Jonathan Papelbon	246	1079	22.8%
Eddie Guardado	143	628	22.8%
Matt Thornton	231	1015	22.8%
Jordan Zimmermann	356	1575	22.6%
Scott Linebrink	212	938	22.6%
Octavio Dotel	231	1031	22.4%
Luis Ayala	148	669	22.1%
Shawn Kelley	140	635	22.0%
Daniel Bard	167	760	22.0%
Justin Verlander	731	3330	22.0%
Jesse Crain	161	737	21.8%
Johan Santana	561	2575	21.8%
Phil Hughes	283	1303	21.7%
Randy Wolf	628	2932	21.4%
Mariano Rivera	191	894	21.4%
Frank Francisco	145	685	21.2%

And, while we're here, how about an update on which batters have hit the most fouls this year:

Batter	Fouls	Total Pitches	Foul Pct
Brian Roberts	490	2480	19.8%
Carl Crawford	476	2227	21.4%
Andre Ethier	466	2396	19.4%
Todd Helton	466	2397	19.4%
Pablo Sandoval	455	1869	24.3%
Derek Jeter	445	2402	18.5%
Jose Lopez	439	1969	22.3%
Robinson Cano	437	2042	21.4%
Shin-Soo Choo	436	2395	18.2%
Aaron Hill	435	2190	19.9%
David Ortiz	434	2271	19.1%
Ryan Howard	427	2464	17.3%
Clint Barmes	426	2055	20.7%
David Wright	423	2234	18.9%
Jayson Werth	422	2612	16.2%
Ian Kinsler	422	2107	20.0%
Matt Kemp	422	2297	18.4%
Johnny Damon	420	2312	18.2%
Chone Figgins	418	2701	15.5%
Brad Hawpe	417	2214	18.8%

And here are the batters who hit the most fouls as a percent of total pitches they've thrown (500 pitch minimum):

Batter	Fouls	Total Pitches	Foul Pct
Pablo Sandoval	455	1869	24.3%
A.J. Pierzynski	376	1556	24.2%
Vladimir Guerrero	254	1082	23.5%
Ivan Rodriguez	342	1473	23.2%
Delmon Young	263	1135	23.2%
Rod Barajas	329	1442	22.8%
Wes Helms	192	843	22.8%
Micah Hoffpauir	178	791	22.5%
Jeff Francoeur	412	1844	22.3%
Jeremy Reed	129	578	22.3%
Jose Lopez	439	1969	22.3%
Matt Tolbert	129	583	22.1%
Bengie Molina	337	1526	22.1%
Alex Gonzalez	283	1285	22.0%
Josh Bard	211	968	21.8%
Dioner Navarro	302	1388	21.8%
Aramis Ramirez	220	1017	21.6%
Jarrod Saltalamacchia	258	1194	21.6%
Miguel Montero	317	1477	21.5%
Carlos Guillen	204	953	21.4%

Labels: foul ball friday

So far this year, batters have hit the most foul balls at the Metrodome, and Land Shark Stadium - that's interesting because both are scheduled to be replace in the next couple of years. Hopefully the new parks that replace them will be as fan friendly by providing an equal number of souvenirs in the form of balls hit in the wrong direction. (Though I actually have no way of knowing how many of the total foul balls hit in each park actually end up in the seats).

Here's the park-by-park listing of total fouls, foul rates, and HBP rates for 2009:

Park	Foul Balls*	Games	HBP	Fouls per Game	Fouls per PA	HBP per PA
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome	3762	69	36	54.52	0.703	0.007
Land Shark Stadium	3726	72	46	51.75	0.647	0.008
Safeco Field	3694	69	33	53.54	0.702	0.006
Oriole Park at Camden Yards	3676	68	36	54.06	0.687	0.007
PETCO Park	3622	70	45	51.74	0.676	0.008
Wrigley Field	3619	67	43	54.01	0.702	0.008
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington	3584	69	57	51.94	0.677	0.011
Dodger Stadium	3544	69	56	51.36	0.673	0.011
Tropicana Field	3542	66	42	53.67	0.700	0.008
Great American Ball Park	3507	68	50	51.57	0.665	0.009
Fenway Park	3451	66	55	52.29	0.682	0.011
Oakland Coliseum	3447	67	33	51.45	0.677	0.006
Kauffman Stadium	3423	67	38	51.09	0.662	0.007
Citi Field	3402	66	47	51.55	0.670	0.009
Coors Field	3381	65	32	52.02	0.667	0.006
Yankee Stadium	3360	65	49	51.69	0.651	0.009
Comerica Park	3348	67	42	49.97	0.665	0.008
U.S. Cellular Field	3333	66	48	50.50	0.667	0.010
Rogers Centre	3298	67	43	49.22	0.639	0.008
Nationals Park	3280	66	49	49.70	0.634	0.009
Progressive Field	3278	63	41	52.03	0.667	0.008
Citizens Bank Park	3259	67	55	48.64	0.626	0.011
Turner Field	3197	65	38	49.18	0.640	0.008
AT&T Park	3149	65	36	48.45	0.655	0.007
Minute Maid Park	3132	65	42	48.18	0.629	0.008
Miller Park	3096	65	46	47.63	0.614	0.009
Busch Stadium	3078	69	48	44.61	0.597	0.009
Angel Stadium of Anaheim	3010	65	44	46.31	0.598	0.009
PNC Park	2993	64	37	46.77	0.616	0.008

*-Foul Balls include foul tips, but not foul bunts or fouls caught for outs. For some reason.

There doesn't appear to be any connection between ball park plunk rates and the rate of foul balls hit per plate appearance at those parks. The combined plunk rate for the top 15 foul ball rate parks is almost identical to the rate for the bottom 15.


For bonus coverage, here are the 2009 Fan Interference totals by ballpark:
Busch Stadium - 6
AT&T Park - 4
Safeco Field - 4
U.S. Cellular Field - 4
Oriole Park at Camden Yards - 4
PNC Park - 3
Comerica Park - 3
Progressive Field - 2
Citi Field - 2
Citizens Bank Park - 2
Angel Stadium of Anaheim - 1
Fenway Park - 1
Miller Park - 1
Coors Field - 1
Minute Maid Park - 1
Rogers Centre - 1
Turner Field - 1
(2009 Fan Interference data, as usual, is gathered from MLB's Gameday files and isn't particularly official)

The fans at Busch Stadium have handed out 6 ground rule doubles on fan interference calls, but 5 of them were to visiting teams (including two for Craig Counsell). Sometimes clever home fans will grab a ball in play, for a ground-rule double which causes the umpire to send a runner who had scored from first back to third base, negating the run - but that didn't happen in any of the 5 cases at Busch. It's possible that any of those 5 could have been triples if not touched by a fan, but they also could have been runners thrown out at third, maybe.
There have only been two of those ground-rule doubles where a fan costs a team a run this year - and both cost the Mets that run. On May 14, Gary Sheffield hit a ground-rule double to left field at AT&T park that cost Carlos Beltran a chance to score from first, and on April 16th, Mets fans did it to their own team, interfering with a Daniel Murphy hit, and holding Jose Reyes up at third. Beltran scored anyway in the road game, but Reyes did not.
So, keep your hands off balls in play, people. In general though, this year's fan interference total is way down from last year - there have only been 41 fan interference incidents so far, while last year there were 68. There had been 62 already by this date last season.

Labels: foul ball friday

Did you know that 47.8% of Todd Helton's swings result in foul balls? He's the most efficient foul ball producing batter in the league with over 200 plate appearances, in terms of fouls per swing.

Here are the ten best batters in the league at creating foul balls on a per-swing basis. (Minimum 200 plate appearances)

Batter	Fouls	Swings*	Fouls per swing
Todd Helton	442	924	0.478
Brian Roberts	463	983	0.471
Kevin Millar	193	413	0.467
Willie Bloomquist	318	694	0.458
Josh Bard	185	406	0.456
Nick Punto	240	529	0.454
Jerry HairstonJr.	320	707	0.453
Kevin Youkilis	353	782	0.451
Dioner Navarro	290	647	0.448
Denard Span	363	816	0.445

*- this swing count includes missed bunt attempts, and foul bunts

Here are the bottom ten in the same category:

Batter	Fouls	Swings*	Fouls per swing
Ty Wigginton	170	558	0.305
Nelson Cruz	229	746	0.307
Cristian Guzman	226	728	0.310
Pedro Feliz	237	758	0.313
Bobby Abreu	234	722	0.324
Adam Rosales	121	369	0.328
Garret Anderson	221	671	0.329
J.J. Hardy	209	634	0.330
Vernon Wells	281	849	0.331
Jody Gerut	106	318	0.333

Being at the bottom of the fouls per swing category doesn't necessarily mean that these guys are good at hitting the ball straight - a couple of them just swing and miss a lot.

Labels: foul ball friday

So what do foul balls have to do with HBPs anyway? Probably no much. But it would be understandable if a batter who fouled off a lot of pitches during a plate appearance frustrated the pitcher enough to get him to throw one that can't be easily fouled off, just to keep the game moving. Just hit the guy and move on.

Well, it appears that pitchers show a little more patience than that. So far this season, batters have been plunked at a rate of once per 116.1 plate appearances, but when they foul off at least one pitch that rate drops to 1 plunk per 131.5 plate appearances. Plunk rates decline with each additional foul ball hit during the plate appearance - after 3 foul balls, batters have been hit once per 172.1 plate appearances, and the 879 batters who have hit 5 or more fouls in a plate appearance have only been hit once. None of the 105 batters who have hit 7 or more fouls in a single plate appearance have been plunked.

62.4% of HBPs this year have occured in plate appearances in which the batter didn't hit any foul balls, but only 57.4% of all plate appearances have been ones with no balls hit foul.

Okay, so it doesn't appear that fouling off a lot of pitches irritates pitchers enough to just hit the batter to get rid of him, but what about the next time the batter comes up? Well, there is a slight increase in HBP rates for batters who fouled off 3 or more pitches in their previous plate appearance. Players who have batted once before in the game already, and didn't hit any foul balls in their prior plate appearance have been plunked once every 109.4 plate appearance, but batters who fouled off 3 or more pitches have been hit about 1.4% more often - about once every 107.9 plate appearances. Fouling off a truely annoying number of pitches like 5 or more doesn't seem to encourage anyone to hit a batter more often the next time they come to the plate either. (These numbers include cases where the batters faced a different pitcher, because I figure the catcher would have a part in the decision too... if we limit it just to instances where the pitcher is the same, the batter is actually less likely to be plunked if he hit some foul balls in his previous trip to the plate.)

So in summary, it appears that hitting foul balls does not increase a batter's likelyhood of being hit by a pitch - at least not base on this season's data. But, at least now you know this.

Labels: foul ball friday

It's a fairly common cliche in baseball that a 162 game season is "a marathon, not a sprint". The point being that it's a long season and teams have to pace themselves to play the full schedule and be at their best all season long. It's inevitable that players will tire as the season goes on. This is one of the reasons people got obsessed with pitch counts sometime during the 90s, and teams seem to have experimented with give certain pitchers "vacation" DL stints in mid-july to keep them fresh for September and if they're lucky, October. Meanwhile, batters have adapted by seeming taking more pitches, being more patient at the plate at trying to wear down pitchers. And team GM's have countered that by rotating an increasing number of arms through major league rosters to throw more pitches without wearing out key pitchers. 615 different players have pitched this season, so MLB is well on it's way toward breaking it's 2007 record of 666 pitchers used. The Angels might be the first team ever to have more players pitch for them than bat for them in a season. This just leads to batters trying even harder to take more pitches and wear down pitchers, and one of the main ways to do that is by hitting a lot of foul balls.

There are a couple of side effects though - lots of study has been done about pitchers wearing down based on the number of pitches they throw, but you don't hear about how many times a batter can swing a bat before they start having trouble in a game, or in a season (though I've looked into this and hope to write about it as some point). And, all that base running can really get to people too - and not just Chien-Ming Wang. And the problem with batters hitting a lot of foul balls is that a lot of times there are guys on base, running with the pitch, expecting the batter to hit the ball someplace useful who have to go all the way back to their base when the ball goes foul. That has to get tiring after a while. For example, on July 21st Mike Napoli fouled off 5 consecutive pitches in an 11 pitch at-bat while Kendry Morales was trying to run from 1st to 2nd on each of them. Albert Pujols did the same thing on April 27th, but he had two guys on base - Brian Barden and Rick Ankiel (who had just been plunked). I'm sure Barden really enjoyed running wind-sprints between 2nd and 3rd while Pujols stood around shooting balls into the stands. Hey Albert, just hit one out so we can have a leisurely jog, how about that? (It's not clear from the play by play accounts if both runners were going, just that at least one of them was).

So far this year, nobody has fouled off more than 5 pitches with runners going, but back on August 19, 2007, Cory Sullivan of the Dodgers fouled off 11 consecutive pitches, all with Yorvit Torealba running on the play. Last seasons's worst incident was Kelly Johnson fouling off 8 pitches with the runners going - with the bases loaded.

So who are the worst offenders this year, making their teammates run back and forth while they selfishly foul off pitches waiting for one that meets their standards to hit in the right direction?
Here's the top 10 in 2009 foul balls hit with runners going:
Orlando Hudson - 20
Albert Pujols - 18
Jorge Cantu - 17
Emilio Bonifacio - 16
Nick Johnson - 15
Kosuke Fukudome - 14
Scott Rolen - 13
Placido Polanco - 13
Ryan Theriot - 13
David Ortiz - 13

Only 10 of Pujols' 18 fouls with runners going were in 2-out situations, which might make a runner wonder, those 8 other times, why he was being told to go when it would be so much easier to sit down on the base and relax and watch Albert hit one over the fence. Jason Giambi led this category last year with 25 fouls with runners going, and Todd Helton has done it the most in recent history with 26 in 2005.

I think it would be logical to assume that teams that are doing all this extra running are going to be more tired at the end of the year (though I may use the word "logical" differently than most people). So, here are the team by team totals for the year:
Dodgers - 103
Tigers - 91
Marlins - 81
Natinals - 81
Cubs - 78
Giants - 77
Rockies - 76
Royals - 73
Angels - 69
Pirates - 69
Twins - 67
Blue Jays - 66
Cardinals - 65
Yankees - 63
Rays - 62
White Sox - 61
Reds - 58
Astros - 58
Indians - 57
A's - 57
Mets - 55
Brewers - 54
Padres - 54
Phillies - 52
Mariners - 51
Orioles - 50
Rangers - 49
Red Sox - 47
Braves - 43
Diamondbacks - 41

Now obviously it would be a better measure of fatigue if we knew how many runners were running on each incident, but the data doesn't quite support that. But if there's clubhouse strife caused by all this unnecessary running, at least we can see which teams have had the most of it. In the past 4 seasons, no team has won the world series after hitting more than 105 foul balls with runners going.


Casey Blake is the only batter this season to foul off 2 pitches with the runners going and then get hit by a pitch. No one else this year has gotten plunked after more than 1 foul with runners going.

Labels: foul ball friday

One of the interesting things about baseball is that it may have been propping up the Thesaurus industry for the last century. Home runs in particular have dozens of different names, depending on whose announcing the game or calling the highlight - dingers, jacks, round-trippers, big fly etc. HBPs can be plunks, but are sometimes beanballs, or purpose-pitches or messages, or preemptive/retaliatory strikes. But foul balls are just stuck being called foul, and generally if you call something foul it doesn't have a very positive connotation.
Foul balls are not offensive or obscene or dishonorable, as the name might suggest, and they don't constitute a rules violation like a foul in other sports. Yet they're still stuck being called foul, even though they have many positive outcomes. They provide fans with memorable souvenirs, allow batters to see more pitches during their plate appearance (and possibly get hit by one), and they stimulate concession sales and the dry cleaning industry when people spill their beverages trying to catch them. They also give us a chance to feel superior to people in higher income brackets when some rich guy in the luxury boxes bobbles a foul pop-up and drops it down to the lower level - were the upper-upper-middle class can afford seats. That's social justice, right? Foul balls also teach fans to pay attention to the game, by occasionally rocketing toward their heads at high speed. The high-speed line drive into the stands can lead to a bad outcome, but the vast majority of the fans love a good foul ball.

So I figure foul balls need some more enjoyable nicknames. The only foul ball nicknames I've ever heard are the backward homer, and for certain instances, the 400 foot strike. But why not the "pitch count raiser" or the "souvenir donation" or the "attention getter" or the "wake up call to section 112 wakeup call". Okay, none of those are great, but we can work on it, right?

Anyway, here's a look at the much-under-publicized list of the league leaders in non-home-run baseball disposal this season (not counting fouls caught for outs) as of the end of play on August 6th:

Batter	Total Foul Balls
Todd Helton	391
Brian Roberts	390
Emilio Bonifacio	385
Carl Crawford	375
David Wright	358
Pablo Sandoval	352
Andre Ethier	351
Shin-Soo Choo	349
Aaron Hill	346
Clint Barmes	344

Here are the team totals leaguewide:

Rockies	3,050
Rays	2,954
Indians	2,923
Padres	2,911
Twins	2,900
Nationals	2,895
Reds	2,883
Cubs	2,873
Marlins	2,868
A's	2,864
Royals	2,837
Blue Jays	2,803
Dodgers	2,801
Giants	2,801
White Sox	2,797
Diamondbacks	2,765
Rangers	2,763
Tigers	2,747
Cardinals	2,739
Astros	2,730
Mariners	2,727
Yankees	2,707
Red Sox	2,702
Pirates	2,693
Braves	2,662
Angels	2,657
Mets	2,575
Phillies	2,545
Brewers	2,482

It's interesting that the Rockies go through so much trouble to humidify all their baseballs at Coors, and then lead the league in foul balls - though that total includes home and road games, and possibly foul balls that don't reach the stands (though most of those still get tossed into the stands anyway).


Here are the leaders in total foul balls hit during plate appearances that ended with an HBP:

Batter	Total Foul Balls
Ryan Garko	12
Kelly Shoppach	10
Kevin Youkilis	8
Yunel Escobar	8
Nyjer Morgan	7
Melvin Mora	7
Casey Blake	7
Brandon Inge	7
Placido Polanco	7
Shin-Soo Choo	7

Interestingly, Chase Utley leads the league in HBPs with 17, but he's only hit 4 foul balls in plate appearances in which he got plunked.

This years record for most fouls in a single plate appearance is 13 by Freddy Sanchez on April 16th (7th inning facing Chris Sampson). Casey Blake has this years mark for most fouls before a plunk with 6 on April 25th (7th inning, facing Matt Daley).




NOTE: All foul ball data is derived from MLB.com's Gameday files, and may contain discrepancies with other foul ball data from other sources. Then again, there might not be any other sources.

Coming next week: which players annoy base runners the most by fouling off pitches with runners going, and which teams have been worn out the most by all that unnecessary running and going back to their base.

Labels: foul ball friday