Plunk Everyone

Hey - Your still using the old plunkeveryone rss feed

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:48:00 +0000

If you're reading this, it probably means you're a subscriber to the plunkeveryone.com rss feed - but, for 2010 I had to move from Blogger to Wordpress, and that means the rss feed is now at a different address - http://www.plunkeveryone.com/wp-rss.xml - either that or it means I did the conversion wrong. Anyway, Thanks for reading, and if you haven't seen an update since the Randy Johnson post, that's why.

190 plunks - the Randy Johnson years

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Randy Johnson announced his retirement this week, ending his career with a total of 190 hit batters. And while it would have been nice to see him become the first modern era pitcher to crack the 200 plunk mark, it's good to see him go out on a high note - and with a hit batter in his final pitching appearance.

In celebration of the Big Unit's career in the plunkular arts, below are a selection of notable* facts and lists of his accomplishments. Out of respect for the national society for the protection of seagulls and pigeons, we won't be mentioning the thing with the bird. If you'd like a complete list of everyone Randy Johnson ever hit by a pitch, you can find that here.

*-definitions of "notable" subject to interpretation. ("You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. ")

Randy Johnson retired holding the career franchise record for most hit batters for both the Mariners and Diamondbacks. Only two other pitchers have done that - but one was Charlie Hough, who retired with the hit batter record for the Rangers and the Marlins - but the Marlins had only existed for 2 years at that point. The other was Tim Keefe, who retired in 1894 holding the record for both the Phillies and the New York Giants, but pitching records for hit batters were very poorly kept back then, so that one can't be trusted.

Randy Johnson hit 3 batters on his birthday - Barry Bonds, Carney Lansford and Charlie O'Brien

He only plunked two pitchers - David Wells and Kevin Jarvis

Randy Johnson hit the opposing 2nd Baseman 31 times, but only two of them were named Pat. None were named Craig Biggio: Fernando Vina (2), Damion Easley (2), Terry Shumpert (2), Wilton Guerrero, Eric Young, Adam Kennedy, Al Newman, Alex Cora, Carlos Baerga, Chad Meyers, Chase Utley, Chuck Knoblauch, Howie Kendrick, Jerry Browne, Jose Lopez, Jose Offerman, Luis Alicea, Mark McLemore, Mike Benjamin, Nick Green, Pat Kelly, Pat Meares, Ray Durham, Rico Rossy, Roberto Alomar, Rod Correia, Scott Brosius, Scott Fletcher

With Johnson's retirement, there is no longer any active pitcher who has plunked Pete Incaviglia, Mike Greenwell, Steve Balboni or Carney Lansford

Mike Greenwell is the only batter Randy Johnson ever plunked on the batter's birthday - he hit Greenwell with a pitch on Greenwell's 30th birthday.

Reed Johnson is the only batter named Johnson ever plunked by Randy Johnson, and also the only player to score 4 runs after reaching base on Big Unit plunks. In all, 52 of the batters (or their pinch runners) came around to score after being plunked by Randy Johnson: Reed Johnson (4), Darin Erstad (2), Jim Leyritz (2), Pat Listach, Luis Matos, Chad Meyers, David Newhan, Charlie O'Brien, Corey Patterson, Ben Petrick, Juan Pierre, Kevin Reimer, Richie Sexson, Mike Simms, Chase Utley, Fernando Vina, Felix Fermin, Mike Gallego, Joey Gathright, Leo Gomez, Rene Gonzales, Craig Grebeck, Charlie Hayes, Tim Hulett, Kevin Jarvis, Roberto Alomar, Steve Balboni, Albert Belle, Marvin Benard, Mike Benjamin, Glenn Braggs, Scott Brosius, Jerry Browne, Jeromy Burnitz, Mike Cameron, Joe Carter, Brady Clark, Alex Cora, Carl Crawford, Brian Downing, J.D. Drew, Damion Easley, Kevin Elster, Wally Joyner, Roberto Kelly,
Adam Kennedy, Chuck Knoblauch

Reed Johnson and Jim Leyritz are the only batters to be hit 4 times by Randy Johnson.

Randy Johnson hit 8 different batters named Mike, a total of 10 times. No other first name collected as many plunks from him: Mike Kinkade (3), Mike Macfarlane, Mike Simms, Mike Sweeney, Mike Benjamin, Mike Cameron, Mike Gallego, Mike Greenwell (Johnson hit two Mikes on the Red Sox and two Mikes on the Royals, but never hit two players with the same first name on any other team)

Candy Maldonado is the only batter named Candy ever plunked by Randy Johnson.

Randy Johnson never hit a batter named Randy, but he did hit three batters in front of home plate umpire Randy Marsh: Geoff Jenkins, Jeromy Burnitz, Barry Bonds

Randy Johnson won 303 games overall, but he won 78 games in which he hit at least one batter. The pitcher with next most wins in games in which Randy Johnson hit someone was Scott Kamieniecki, who won three such games. The following batters were plunked by Randy Johnson in games won by Scott Kamieniecki: Charlie Hayes, Jim Leyritz, Cal Ripken, Gerald Williams

Randy Johnson also lost 47 games in which he hit a batter, but Bobby Ayala was the only other pitcher to lose 3 games in which the Big Unit hit a batter. These guys got hit by Randy Johnson in games that Bobby Ayala took the loss for: Will Clark, Wilton Guerrero, Luis Polonia

Randy Johnson hit 5 batters in games in which he had 15 or more strikeouts: Scott Brosius,
Nomar Garciaparra, Jim Leyritz, Rico Rossy, Mo Vaughn

Johnson only hit one current member of the 3000 hit club, Cal Ripken.

The following players were hit by a Randy Johnson pitch and have over 100 career HBPs. (Johnson never hit anyone who has broken the 200 plunk barrier so far)
Andres Galarraga -177
Jason Giambi -164
Fernando Vina (twice) - 157
Brady Anderson -154
Chuck Knoblauch -139
Larry Walker (3 times) - 138
Damion Easley (3 times) - 132
Scott Rolen (twice) - 112
Luis Gonzalez -111
Mo Vaughn (3 times) - 108
Chase Utley -107
Barry Bonds (twice) - 106

David Wells and Callix Crabbe are the only batters who have never been hit by anyone but Randy Johnson. Both were batting for the Padres when Johnson delivered there only career HBP. (Crabbe spent 2009 in the Mariners farm system, so he could still come back to the majors to be plunked by someone else.)

Johnson hit the Padres more often than any other team - the following batters were hit by Randy Johnson while batting for San Diego:
Adrian Gonzalez (2), Justin Huber, Kevin Jarvis, Bubba Trammell, Ramon Vazquez, David Wells, Rondell White, Everth Cabrera, Brian Buchanan, Sean Burroughs, Mike Cameron, Callix Crabbe

The following batters have been hit by a Randy Johnson pitch while Benito Santiago was the runner on 2nd base: Jeff Blauser, Reggie Sanders, J.T. Snow

These batters were plunked by Randy Johnson in relief appearances:Mike Sweeney,
Everth Cabrera. (Cabrera was plunk number 190, in Johnson's final game)

These batters were hit by Randy Johnson with the bases loaded: Brandon Larson, Charlie Hayes, Junior Ortiz, Mike Kinkade, Ruben Mateo

Johnson hit 29 different batters a total of 34 times while Dan Wilson was his catcher, and hit 31 different batters a total of 33 times with Dave Valle catching.

Randy Johnson hit 4 different batters with last names at least 10 letters long, for a total of 5 plunks: Nomar Garciaparra, Mike Macfarlane, Pete Incaviglia (twice), Jim Eisenreich

The following batters were hit by Randy Johnson while batting left handed with 2 outs in a day game: Luis Gonzalez, Mark Grace, Mike Greenwell, Shawn Green, John Olerud, Dave Roberts

Aramis Ramirez is the only batter to get hit by Randy Johnson before reaching age 21.

The following players were hit by Randy Johnson after they turned 40: Barry Bonds, Brian Downing, Gary Gaetti, Andres Galarraga, David Wells

The following players were hit by Randy Johnson while they were 31 years old (the most common age of his targets): Rene Gonzales (three times while 31), Tim Hulett, Kevin Jarvis, Jim Leyritz, Candy Maldonado, Al Newman, John Russell, Mike Simms, Shannon Stewart, Fernando Vina, Mitch Webster, Rondell White, Eric Young, Luis Alicea, Brady Clark, Darnell Coles, Darin Erstad, Jason Giambi

These batters were plunked by Randy Johnson after he turned 40:
Reed Johnson (4), Barry Bonds (2), Alex Cora (2), Adrian Gonzalez (2), Luis Gonzalez, Nick Green, Jack Hannahan, Justin Huber, Aubrey Huff, Brandon Inge, Geoff Jenkins, Chris Coste, Callix Crabbe, Carl Crawford, Joe Crede, David DeJesus, Damion Easley, Darin Erstad, Joey Gathright, Jeromy Burnitz, Sean Burroughs, Mike Cameron, Brady Clark, Everth Cabrera, Brad Ausmus, Howie Kendrick, Adam Kennedy, Derrek Lee, Jose Lopez, Luis Matos, David Newhan, Josh Phelps, Ian Stewart, Shannon Stewart, Charles Thomas, Chase Utley, Larry Walker, David Wells, Brad Wilkerson

These batters were plunked by Randy Johnson while he was 28 (his plunkiest year): Rene Gonzales (3 times), Jim Leyritz (twice), Pat Listach, Candy Maldonado, Al Newman, John Russell, Terry Shumpert, Lee Stevens, Craig Grebeck, Charlie Hayes, Pat Kelly, Roberto Kelly, Mark Lewis, Roberto Alomar, Sandy Alomar, Joe Carter

Obviously this is only a partial list of important facts about the career plunkings of Randy Johnson, so if there's something you really need to know that I've left out, just ask in the comments, and I can expand this post.

Who Cares? (about defensive indifference)

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Well somebody has to care enough about defensive indifference to at least write down that it happened, even if the catchers don't care enough to stop a runner from taking a base. So, here are the catchers who chalked up the most defensive indifference plays in 2009:
Russell Martin (LAN) - 20
Yadier Molina (SLN) - 15
Jorge Posada (NYA) - 14
Jason Varitek (BOS) - 13
Brian McCann (ATL) - 11
A.J. Pierzynski (CHA) - 10
Jeff Mathis (ANA) - 9
Koyie Hill (CHN) - 9*
Paul Bako (PHI) - 7
Rod Barajas (TOR) - 7
Jason Kendall (MIL) - 7
Mike Napoli (ANA) - 7
Carlos Ruiz (PHI) - 7
Jarrod Saltalamacchia (TEX) - 7

*- one of Koyie Hill's 9 defensive indifference plays had two baserunners moving - making him the only catcher in 2009 to watch two runners he didn't care move to a new base.

Martin's 20 instances of defensive indifference are the most in a single season in the last 5 years. Jason Kendall had 17 defensive indifferences in 2005. Also, if I'm going to talk about defensive indifference any more it needs to have a shorter nickname - like "shrugs". As in, Kendall had 17 shrugs at catcher in 2005.

Red Sox aquire all time leader in hitting Derek Jeter with pitches.

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:49:00 +0000

John Lackey has reportedly signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox, and that may or may not have something to do with the fact that John Lackey is the only Major League pitcher who has hit Derek Jeter with 4 pitches. He's faced Jeter just 54 times in the regular season, but they'll see a lot more of each other playing in the same division. Red Sox starter Josh Beckett faced Jeter 18 times last year, so if we can assume the Lackey will get a similar number of opportunities against Jeter and maintain his plunks per plate appearance rate, he'll be able to plunk Jeter 1.3 times. (Not that he'd be trying to hit him or anything...).
Lackey broke the Angels career record for hitting batters last year, with a total of 73.

In other plunk related player movement, Jason Kendall has signed with the Kansas City Royals, who no doubt want to capitalize on Kendall's quest to break the all time HBP record. Kendall needs to get hit 40 times to reach 288 plunks and pass Hughie Jenning's 287 career HBPs.

Winter ball plunk update

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Arizona Fall League (finished play Nov. 21st)

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Daryl Jones (STL)	Surprise Rafters	4	109	0.037
Nevin Ashley (TB)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	4	83	0.048
Jose Tabata (PIT)	Scottsdale Scorpions	3	138	0.022
Grant Desme (OAK)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	3	134	0.022
Frederick Freeman	Peoria Saguaros (ATL)	3	55	0.055
Brandon Hicks	Peoria Saguaros	3	104	0.029

Dominican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Carlos Gomez	Leones del Escogido	5	55	0.091
Eugenio Velez	Estrellas de Oriente	3	91	0.033
Matt Carson (OAK)	Aguilas Cibaenas	3	58	0.052
Hector Luna	Aguilas Cibaenas	3	85	0.035
Luis Terrero	Aguilas Cibaenas	3	63	0.048

Mexican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Francisco Arias	Mayos de Navojoa	12	234	0.051
Ruben Rivera	Venados de Mazatlan	8	223	0.036
John Lindsey	Venados de Mazatlan	7	223	0.031
Abel Martinez	Mayos de Navojoa	6	171	0.035
Heber Gomez	Venados de Mazatlan	6	189	0.032
Matt Young (ATL)	Mayos de Navojoa	6	239	0.025
Carlos Sievers	Aguilas de Mexicali	6	134	0.045

Puerto Rican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Jorge Padilla	Lobos de Arecibo	8	82	0.098
Reggie Abercrombie	Leones de Ponce	4	78	0.051
Nate Schierholtz	Gigantes de Carolina	3	66	0.045
Raul Gonzalez	Leones de Ponce	3	74	0.041
Raul Casanova	Leones de Ponce	3	57	0.053

Venezuelan League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Max Ramirez (TEX*)	Tiburones de La Guaira	9	225	0.04
Cesar Suarez	Tiburones de La Guaira	7	190	0.037
Jon Jay (STL)	Leones del Caracas	7	156	0.045
Andres Blanco (CHC)	Navegantes del Magallanes	6	166	0.036
Ezequiel Carrera (SEA)	Navegantes del Magallanes	6	183	0.033
Dennys Abreu	Bravos de Margarita	6	121	0.05
Daniel Dorn (CIN)	Caribes de Anzoategui	5	65	0.077
Adam Heether (MIL)	Leones del Caracas	5	90	0.056
Luis Gonzalez	Caribes de Anzoategui	5	199	0.025
Brendan Katin (MIL)	Aguilas de Zulia	5	80	0.063
Ernesto Mejia (KC)	Aguilas de Zulia	5	181	0.028

*- Max Ramirez is rumored to be going to Boston in exchange for Mike Lowell. Clearly that whole deal is based on Ramirez's impressive HBP performance in Venezuala.

2009 American League most plunkable player traded

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:48:00 +0000

Kelly Shoppach was sent packing by the Cleveland Indians earlier this week, traded for a player to be plunked later to the Tampa Bay Rays. This is good news for Shoppach and his apparent love for being hit by a lot of pitches, since the Indians did not seem interested in giving him a lot of playing time, even after the Victor Martinez trade. Even if he doesn't get more playing time though, Shoppach should find more pitches to get hit by. In 2009, pitchers in the American League Central Division had the lowest plunk rate of any division in the league, at 1 hit batter per every 132.6 plate appearances. If we exclude Cleveland from that calculation, Shoppach's division opponents hit batters once every 130.5 plate appearances. But the American League East had the highest pitchers' plunk rate of any division in the majors, with a batter being hit by an AL East pitcher once every 106.5 plate appearances. Tampa Bay's pitchers were actually showing below average in the division, at plunking batters, because teams pitcher in the AL East who weren't pitching for the Rays hit a batter every 101.5 plate appearances. Based on 2009 numbers, Shoppach should be able to get hit by 28.6% more pitches in the same number of plate appearances. (Obviously plunk rates in 2010 will be a little different depending on player movement, and restructured pitching staffs, but the AL East has consistently been a prime place to get hit by pitches - AL East pitchers have had the highest plunk rate by division in 7 of the last 10 seasons, and have never been lower than third place among divisions.

Shoppach got hit 18 times to lead the AL in 2009. If he gets hit 28.6% more often, as indicated by 2009 plunk rates, he'll be in the neighborhood of 23 HBPs. The Ray's franchise record for plunks in a season is 14 by Johnny Gomes in 2005. That record could very likely change hands in 2010.

who cares about the MVP? Who's the most Average player?

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:10:00 +0000

MVP voting results have been announced this week, but it's too easy to figure out the best players of a given season. The more interesting question is who were the most AVERAGE players.

For one, Mark Ellis of the A's. Ellis compiled a batting average of .262599 in 2009, which is just .000159 away from the Major League batting average of .262440. That's pretty average. Randy Winn came the next closest to being perfectly average on a league-wide level, batting .262081.

Splitting by American League vs National League, we can see that Jeremy Hermida had the most average batting average in the NL, with a .258741 compared to the NL average of .258789. That's almost ridiculously average - off by just .000048. In the American League, rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus batted .266666 to nearly match the AL average of .266555. Kosuke Fukudome was the 2nd most average batter in the NL with a .258517, and Jason Bay was 2nd most average in the AL at .267419.

But, some might argue that if we're going to give out a most average player award, it should be to the player who is most average within their own team - much like the MVP should be the most valuable player on his own team. By those standards you'd have to go for Nelson Cruz, who batted .259740 for the Rangers, while the Rangers batted .259862 as a team. In the National League, Chipper Jones took his role as the franchise player a step too far by exemplifying the teams batting average to nearly 3 decimal places. He batted .264344 compared to the Braves overall average of .263404. Surely the mark of a true team player, playing exactly at the level of the team.

Also, I know that many people aren't big fans of batting averages anymore and somehow think something like OPS is a better indicator of overall offense, or something, so just in case you need to know who the most average players by OPS are, I can do that. The Major League average OPS was .750683, and the closest player to matching that exactly was Mark DeRosa with .751824. The NL average OPS was .739322, and Jeremy Hermida once again came closest to that one with .739876. Michael Bourn was third closest to matching the NL average OPS with a .738138. In the AL, Franklin Gutierrez had an OPS of 0.739876, coming the closest to the average AL OPS of .763497. Juan Pierre was the best in the majors at matching his team's OPS, with a .757489 compared to the Dodgers' .757465. He was off by just .000024! Among AL teams, Maicer Izturis was the best at matching his team's OPS, with a .793555 compared to the team's .791526.

More importantly than any of those things, Ryan Howard was the most average, league wide, at getting hit by pitches. He took a plunk once every 117.17 plate appearance, while the league average was one plunk every 117.66 PAs. Kelly Johnson got hit the most avergely in the NL with a plunk every 115.33 PAs compared to the NL average of 115.077, while Aubrey Huff took 5 plunks in the AL at a rate of one every 119.4 PAs, compared to the American League plunk rate of one per 120.742 plate appearances. Andruw Jones got really close to the Rangers plunk rate, getting hit once every 165.5 plate appearances, which is right on pace with the one per 165.595
plunk rate of the rest of the team, but his teammate Hank Blalock also got hit once per 165 plate appearances and played in 41 more games than Jones. In the NL, Joe Thurston got hit once every 102.667 plate appearances, which is very close to the Cardinals average rate of one hbp per 101.115 plate appearances.

Winter league update - plunks in warm weather

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:51:00 +0000

Arizona Fall League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Daryl Jones (STL)	Surprise Rafters	4	80	0.05
Grant Desme (OAK)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	2	94	0.021
Jose Tabata (PIT)	Scottsdale Scorpions	2	95	0.021
Nevin Ashley (TB)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	2	48	0.042
Chris Heisey (CIN)	Peoria Saguaros	2	76	0.026
Ruben Tejada (NYM)	Surprise Rafters	2	53	0.038
Frederick Freeman (ATL)	Peoria Saguaros	2	51	0.039

Dominican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Eugenio Velez (SF)	Estrellas de Oriente	2	24	0.083
Elian Herrera	Aguilas Cibaenas	2	28	0.071
Matt Carson (OAK)	Aguilas Cibaenas	2	38	0.053
Kevin Barker	Aguilas Cibaenas	2	39	0.051
Pablo Ozuna	Estrellas de Oriente	2	47	0.043

Mexican League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Heber Gomez	Venados de Mazatlan	5	91	0.055
Abel Martinez	Mayos de Navojoa	4	106	0.038
Francisco Arias	Mayos de Navojoa	4	115	0.035
Ramon Orantes	Caneros de los Mochis	4	92	0.043
Ruben Rivera	Venados de Mazatlan	4	110	0.036
Brian Bixler (PIT)	Venados de Mazatlan	3	120	0.025
Javier Robles	Mayos de Navojoa	3	100	0.03
Carlos Sievers	Aguilas de Mexicali	3	83	0.036
Sergio Gastelum	Tomateros de Culiacan	3	75	0.04
Coby Smith (LAA)	Caneros de los Mochis	3	102	0.029
Said Gutierrez	Yaquis de Obregon	3	88	0.034
Daniel Fornes	Yaquis de Obregon	3	96	0.031
Flavio Romero	Yaquis de Obregon	3	120	0.025

Venezualan League:

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Jon Jay (STL)	Leones del Caracas	6	119	0.05
Brendan Katin (MIL)	Aguilas de Zulia	5	73	0.068
Adam Heether (MIL)	Leones del Caracas	5	90	0.056
Max Ramirez (TEX)	Tiburones de La Guaira	5	106	0.047
Daniel Dorn (CIN)	Caribes de Anzoategui	5	65	0.077
Cesar Suarez n	Tiburones de La Guaira	4	119	0.034
Ezequiel Carrera (SEA)	Navegantes del Magallanes	4	99	0.04
Dennys Abreu n	Bravos de Margarita	4	56	0.071
Jesus Merchan (CLE)	Navegantes del Magallanes	3	100	0.03
Carlos Leon n	Bravos de Margarita	3	40	0.075
Edwar Gonzalez (NYY)	Cardenales de Lara	3	59	0.051
Luis Bolivar (CIN)	Aguilas de Zulia	3	64	0.047
David Paisano (TEX)	Tiburones de La Guaira	3	50	0.06
Manuel Pina (KC)	Tiburones de La Guaira	3	15	0.2
Richard Hidalgo n	Navegantes del Magallanes	3	109	0.028
Luis Gonzalez	Caribes de Anzoategui	3	113	0.027

World Series wrapup

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:18:00 +0000

Pedro Martinez hit one more batter in last night's final game of the World Series, bringing his career total to 8 postseason hit batters. That ranks behind only Greg Maddux and Tim Wakefield, who each hit 9 in the postseason. Mark Teixeira got hit for the third time in the World Series, tying him with Alex Rodriguez for the most plunks in this years Series. Prior to this season, Max Carey had sole possession of the record for most HBPs in a single World Series, with 3 in the 1925 series, but now he has to share that record with both Rodriguez and Teixeira.

2009's World Series also ties the record for the most lopsided plunk totals with the Yankees being hit 6 times to Phildelphia's one HBP. The 2001 World Series saw the Diamondbacks plunked 6 times and the Yankees plunked once. Not surprisingly, in each case the team with the most plunks won.

Postseason HBPs by Catcher

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Here's a look at which catchers have been behind the plate, expecting to catch the most postseason HBPs:

Jorge Posada - 39
Jason Varitek - 30
Brad Ausmus - 17
Sandy Alomar - 17
Ivan Rodriguez - 17
Yogi Berra - 14
Yadier Molina - 14
Mike Matheny - 13
Mike Piazza - 12
Bengie Molina - 12
Carlos Ruiz - 11
Steve Yeager - 10
Javy Lopez - 10
Tony Pena - 10
Ramon Hernandez - 9
A.J. Pierzynski - 9
Boss Schmidt - 9
Russell Martin - 9
Yorvit Torrealba - 8
Dioner Navarro - 8
Dan Wilson - 8

Since 2002, 14.9% of postseason plunks have occurred with a Molina behind the plate, but this year that number is up to 27.6%.

In the World Series itself, Yogi Berra holds the record with 14 HBPs, followed by Jorge Posada with 10, and Boss Schmidt with 9. Johnny Kling, Roy Campanella, Ray Schalk, Gabby Hartnett and incoherent TV babbler Tim McCarver have all called the pitches that became 7 World Series HBPs.

One Pitch, Three Records Broken (and no fingers)

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:12:00 +0000

There was just one pitch that hit a batter in last night's World Series Game 5, but on that one pitch, three different records were broken. Shane Victorino became the most plunked batter in Phillies postseason history, with his 3rd. AJ Burnett became the Yankees franchise leader in postseason hit batters with 5. And, Burnett became the first pitcher ever to hit 5 batters in a single postseason.

Shane Victorino has now been hit 3 times this postseason, which doesn't sound like very many times, but no other Philly has ever been hit 3 times in their postseason careers with the team, much less in the same season. Prior to this year, Greg Luzkinski and Garry Maddox were the only players to get hit twice in the postseason for the Phillies. Luzinski got hit in the 1977 NLCS and the 1980 World Series, while Maddox got hit in the NLCS in 1977 and 1980. This postseason, Jimmy Rollins has been hit twice for Philadelphia, but Victorino has three HBPs. Ten other players have been hit once for the Phillies in the postseason - Fred Luderus (1915 WS), Milt Stock (1915 WS), Del Ennis (1950 WS), Steve Carlton (1977 NLCS), Pete Rose (1980 WS), Darren Daulton (1993 WS), Ryan Howard (2007 NLDS), Eric Bruntlett (2008 WS), Chase Utley (2008 WS), and Carlos Ruiz (2009 NLCS).

Meanwhile, Burnett has now hit 5 batters this postseason. Only two other players have hit more than 4 batters in the same postseason - Roy Oswalt hit 4 for the 2005 Astros, and Pedro Martinez hit 4 for the 2004 Red Sox. In Yankees History, four other pitchers had hit 4 batters in their postseason careeers - Roger Clemens, Orlando Hernandez, David Wells and Jeff Nelson. But, Burnett is the first to hit 5.

Rodriguez breaks postseason HBP record

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:19:00 +0000

Alex Rodriguez got hit by a Joe Blanton pitch last night, bringing hit postseason total to 8. That's a new postseason record, passing David Eckstein's 7 career postseason hbps. Rodriguez is also just the 2nd player ever hit 3 times in a single World Series, joining Hall of Famer Max Carey who was hit 3 times for the Pirates in the 1925 World Series. (In terms of style points though, you'd have to give Max Carey the edge, just because he got hit twice by Walter Johnson).

Alex Rodriguez breaks Yankees record, ties MLB record

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:55:00 +0000

Alex Rodriguez got hit by two pitches last night, one by Cole Hamels, and one by Chad Durbin, bringing his career postseason HBP total to 7. That moves him ahead of Tino Martinez for the Yankees postseason record, and into a tie with David Eckstein for the MLB all time postseason plunk record.

Yankees plunked 100 times in Postseason History

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Along with being the first player ever plunked on October 29th, Mark Teixeira had the honor of recording the 100th postseason HBP in the history of the New York Yankees. It was Teixeira's first postseason plunk ever; recorded in the 8th inning against Ryan Madson, who had never before hit a batter in the postseason. Teixeira is now the 57th batter to be plunked in the postseason while batting for the Yankees.

For the Yankees franchise, it was the 49th HBP they've been thrown in the World Series, and the 30th World Series in which they've been hit by at least one pitch. The Tigers are a distant 2nd in World Series plunks with 20, but they've only been hit in 9 different World Series. The Red Sox have been hit 19 times in 10 World Series. On the overall postseason list, the Red Sox are a distant 2nd with 44.

Last nights plunk was the 12th in Yankees history in game 2 of the World Series, but they've been hit more times in game 3 with 14 plunks. Another 10 Yankees have been plunked in World Series Game 1, 6 in game 5, 5 in game 4, and 2 in game 6. But no Yankee has ever been hit by a pitch in game 7 of a World Series. Miguel Cairo got hit in ALCS game 7, in 2004, but that's the only game 7 the Yankees have been plunked in.

Here's the full break down of the Yankees 100 postseason plunks, by round and game:

Game	ALDS	ALCS	World Series	Total
Game 1	8	4	10	22
Game 2	7	7	12	26
Game 3	4	3	14	21
Game 4	3	2	5	10
Game 5	3	9	6	18
Game 6	n/a	0	2	2
Game 7	n/a	1	0	1
Total	25	26	49	100

Of the 100 baserunners the Yankees have gotten by being hit by pitches, only 16 of them have actually come around to score a run. The last time a plunked batter came around to score was that ALCS game 7 plunk in 2004 by Miguel Cairo (that includes plunks on which a pinch runner took the place of the hit batter, and the pinch runner scored). Cairo has scored 3 times after reaching on HBPs - all in the 2004 ALCS. Derek Jeter is the only other Yankee to score runs after plunks twice. The others to do so are Nick Johnson, Jason Giambi, Chuck Knoblauch, Jim Leyritz, Randy Velarde, Rick Cerone, Elston Howard, Tony Kubek, Hank Bauer, Phil Rizzuto, Joe Dimaggio, and Billy Johnson. Only Mike Stanley, George Pipgras and Earle Combs have been hit with the bases loaded in the postseason for the Yankees - once each.

Overall, the Yankees have won 53 postseason games in which they've been hit by at least 1 pitch, and lost 31. In games when they've been hit twice, they're 11-5. 59 of their 100 postseason plunks have been recorded in series that the Yankees went on to win. They've won 34 of the 50 postseason series in which they've been hit by a pitch at least once - they have a 17 and 5 series record when they get hit once, 10-6 when plunked twice, 3-3 when they get hit 3 times, and 4-1 when they get hit 4 times in a series, and 0-1 when hit 7 times in a postseason series (that was the '04 Red Sox). Overall, they've won 46 postseason series and lost 21 so they actually have a slightly better record of winning their series when they don't get hit by any pitches, at 11-5.

Tino Martinez has the Yankees postseason record for total plunks with 6, but he never got hit in the World Series. Derek Jeter, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and Reggie Jackson all got hit 3 times in the World Series, so that's the record for that round. Miguel Cairo is the only Yankee to get hit 4 times in a single postseason, and he actually did all of them in a single series - the 2004 ALCS. That's not just a Yankee record, it's an MLB record for both most HBPs for a batter in a single series, and for a single postseason. The first Yankee ever to be plunked in the postseason was Mike McNally in the 1921 World Series (game 3). The first ALCS plunk for the Yankees landed on Rick Cerone in the 4th inning of game 2 of the 1981 ALCS - but Greg Nettles got hit two innings later. Randy Velarde recorded the first ALDS plunk in Yankees history in game 1 of the 1995 division series. Mike Gazella was the only Yankee ever plunked in extra innings of a postseason game, getting hit in the 10th inning of game 5 in the 1926 World Series. Chuck Knoblauch was the only player plunked as the first Yankee batter of the game in the postseason, and he did so twice - in ALDS game 1, and ALCS game 5 of 1998. Knoblauch's 1998 postseason for the Yankees was the only time in major league history a batter got hit in all 3 rounds of the postseason.

Pedro Martinez is responsible for more plunkings of Yankees than any other postseason pitcher, with 4. No other pitcher has thrown more than 2. The Dodgers are the franchise who has hit the Yankees the most, having thrown 16 World Series plunks against the Yankees. The Red Sox have hit them 12 times. They've been plunked by 21 of the 29 other Major League teams - 9 from the AL and 12 from the NL. The only teams that haven't hit the Yankees at least once in the postseason are the Astros, Brewers, Rockies, Nationals, Rays, White Sox, Blue Jays and Royals.

Here's the complete list of every Yankee plunked in the postseason:
Tino Martinez - 6 (2001 ALDS x2, 1999 ALCS, 1998 ALCS, 1996 ALCS, 1997 ALDS)
Derek Jeter - 5 (2003 WS, 2001 WS, 1996 WS, 2001 ALDS, 2000 ALDS)
Alex Rodriguez - 5 (2004 ALCS x2, 2005 ALDS x2, 2006 ALDS)
Miguel Cairo - 4 (2004 ALCS x4)
Jason Giambi - 4 (2006 ALDS x2, 2003 WS, 2002 ALDS)
Chuck Knoblauch - 4 (1998 WS, 2000 ALCS, 1998 ALCS, 1998 ALDS)
Yogi Berra - 3 (1953 WS x2, 1955 WS)
Elston Howard - 3 (1964 WS, 1962 WS, 1960 WS)
Reggie Jackson - 3 (1978 WS x2, 1977 WS)
David Justice - 3 (2000 WS x2, 2001 ALCS)
Alfonso Soriano - 3 (2003 ALCS, 2001 ALCS, 2002 ALDS)
Bernie Williams - 3 (2000 ALCS, 1999 ALDS, 1997 ALDS)
Scott Brosius - 2 (2000 WS, 2001 ALDS)
Robinson Cano - 2 (2009 ALCS x2)
Mariano Duncan - 2 (1996 ALCS, 1996 ALDS)
Lou Gehrig - 2 (1936 WS, 1932 WS)
Jim Leyritz - 2 (1996 ALDS, 1995 ALDS)
Raul Mondesi - 2 (2002 ALDS x2)
Joe Pepitone - 2 (1964 WS, 1963 WS)
Jorge Posada - 2 (2004 ALCS, 2000 ALCS)
Babe Ruth - 2 (1932 WS, 1922 WS)
Hank Bauer - 1 (1953 WS)
Aaron Boone - 1 (2003 ALCS)
Rick Cerone - 1 (1981 ALCS)
Chris Chambliss - 1 (1976 WS)
Earle Combs - 1 (1927 WS)
Frankie Crosetti - 1 (1938 WS)
David Dellucci - 1 (2003 ALCS)
Bill Dickey - 1 (1932 WS)
Joe DiMaggio - 1 (1950 WS)
Joe Dugan - 1 (1922 WS)
Karim Garcia - 1 (2003 ALCS)
Mike Gazella - 1 (1926 WS)
Tommy Henrich - 1 (1941 WS)
Billy Johnson - 1 (1947 WS)
Nick Johnson - 1 (2003 ALDS)
Tony Kubek - 1 (1960 WS)
Tony Lazzeri - 1 (1937 WS)
Johnny Lindell - 1 (1947 WS)
Billy Martin - 1 (1952 WS)
Hideki Matsui - 1 (2003 WS)
Gil McDougald - 1 (1953 WS)
Mike McNally - 1 (1921 WS)
Graig Nettles - 1 (1981 ALCS)
John Olerud - 1 (2004 ALDS)
Herb Pennock - 1 (1923 WS)
Lou Piniella - 1 (1977 WS)
George Pipgras - 1 (1928 WS)
Phil Rizzuto - 1 (1951 WS)
Eddie Robinson - 1 (1955 WS)
Joe Sewell - 1 (1932 WS)
Bill Skowron - 1 (1962 WS)
Mike Stanley - 1 (1997 ALDS)
Johnny Sturm - 1 (1941 WS)
Nick Swisher - 1 (2009 ALCS)
Mark Teixeira - 1 (2009 WS)
Randy Velarde - 1 (1995 ALDS)

In summary, I find this much more impressive than the 26 championships. But I still don't like the Yankees.

Pedro vs the Yankees

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:11:00 +0000

As you may have noticed, nobody got hit by a pitch in World Series game 1 last night. That made it the 4th consecutive year that nobody got hit in game 1 of the World Series, and the 68th plunk-free World Series game 1 of all time. But tonight, Pedro Martinez is facing AJ Burnett. Burnett hit 4 batters in the first two rounds of the postseason this year, which means he's tied with Roy Oswalts 2005 postseason, and Pedro Martinez's 2004 postseason for the most plunks by a pitcher in a single postseason run. Pedro, meanwhile, is facing the Yankees. He's already hit them 4 times in the postseason - no other pitcher has plunked the same team more than 3 times in his post season career. He has also hit 17 Yankees in the regular season, which is more than any other active or recently active pitcher.

On the other hand, of those 21 regular season and postseason plunks Pdro has thrown at the Yankees, only 4 hit a batter who was in last night's yankees line-up. He's hit Alex Rodriguez twice (both times in the 2004 ALCS), and he's hit Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada just once each. He's never hit Damon, Matsui, Cano, Cabrera, Teixeira or Swisher. But there's a first time for everything.

Also on the list of never-done-before feats of plunkery, there has never been a major league HBP on October 29th - every other day in October has had at least one plunke recorded, but no one has ever been hit on the 29th. But, there has also never been a game on the 29th of October (which just brings up the question one more time of why this is the latest starting date for a world series ever - a day later than the 2001 world series game 1 which was postponed for legitimate reasons, and in a year when neither LCS went 7 games. Stop it MLB, just stop it.)

Lastly, the Yankees have been hit 99 times in postseason history. Wouldn't it be nice to have Pedro's name go into the history books as the pitcher who threw the 100th pitch to hit a Yankees batter in the postseason?

Where the weather is still warm and the plunks are still flying

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:23:00 +0000

There have been 23 plunks in the Major League postseason so far this year, which isn't bad - it's actually the most plunks in the pre-world series rounds since 2005. But it's hard to keep interested in major league postseason plunkings when it seems like they're taking a week off between each game. But, there are alternatives. New seasons have already begun in the Arizona Fall League, the Venezuelan Winter League (Liga Venezuela Beisbol Profesional), the Mexican Pacific League (Liga Mexicana del Pacifico), and the Dominican Winter League (Liga de Beisbol Dominicano). The Puerto Rican league starts up next month. 84 batters have already been plunked in the Venezuelan League, 59 in the Mexican League, 37 in the Arizona Fall League and 11 in the Dominican League.

So, here are some leaders in winter league plunkings. Some of these players may be the Major League HBP heros of the future for your favorite team. Annoyingly, the MLB.com stat pages for these leagues don't list HBPs- but that's why we have the internet.

Daryl Jones is tearing up the Arizona Fall league so far, having been hit by 4 pitches in 10 games for the Surprise Rafters. He's a Cardinals minor leaguer, and he only got hit 6 times in AA level ball in 2009. But, in 2008 he's had 3 double digit plunk seasons in the minors, and a total of 50 minor league plunks. There are only three other batters who have been hit more than once in the Arizona Fall League, and the player's major league parent club is in parenthesis next to their names for the ones I bothered to look up.

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Daryl Jones (STL)	Surprise Rafters	4	47	0.085
Jose Tabata (PIT)	Scottsdale Scorpions	2	42	0.048
Nevin Ashley (TB)	Phoenix Desert Dogs	2	31	0.065
Ruben Tejada (NYM)	Surprise Rafters	2	36	0.056

The Dominican League is only a week and a half into there season, and Pablo Ozuna is the only player to be plunked twice so far. You may remember him from such teams as the Chicago White Sox from 2005 to mid-2008, but he spent 2009 hanging around the Phillies farm system, and is currently a free agent - perhaps hoping his Dominican league efforts at getting hit by pitches will land him an offer.

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Pablo Ozuna	Estrellas de Oriente	2	22	0.091
Juan Richardson	Estrellas de Oriente	1	21	0.048
Hector Luna (LAD)	Aguilas Cibaenas	1	18	0.056
Josh Pressley	Estrellas de Oriente	1	11	0.091
Matt Tupman (KC)	Tigres del Licey	1	15	0.067
Matt Carson (OAK)	Aguilas Cibaenas	1	16	0.063
Jose Campusano	Gigantes del Cibao	1	9	0.111
Elian Herrera	Aguilas Cibaenas	1	10	0.1
Jamie Hoffmann	Leones del Escogido	1	16	0.063
Tony Abreu (ARI)	Aguilas Cibaenas	1	18	0.056

In the Mexican League, Heber Gomez is leading with 4 HBPs, with Roman Orantes chasing him at 3 HBPs. Neither of them is currently affiliated with a Major League club.

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Heber Gomez	Venados de Mazatlan	4	47	0.085
Ramon Orantes	Caneros de los Mochis	3	47	0.064
Javier Robles	Mayos de Navojoa	2	49	0.041
Refugio Cervantes	Tomateros de Culiacan	2	53	0.038
Abel Martinez	Mayos de Navojoa	2	58	0.034
John Mayberry (PHI)	Yaquis de Obregon	2	38	0.053
Said Gutierrez	Yaquis de Obregon	2	48	0.042
Daniel Fornes	Yaquis de Obregon	2	48	0.042
Francisco Arias	Mayos de Navojoa	2	60	0.033
Neil Sellers (PHI)	Yaquis de Obregon	2	57	0.035
Sandy Madera	Caneros de los Mochis	2	62	0.032

Lastly, we have the Venezuelan League - which so far has been the plunkiest league of all with a batter getting hit about once every 53.5 plate appearances. Adam Heether and Jon Jay have each been hit 5 times in Venezuala so far, and they play for the same team. No word yet on whether Hugo Chavez plans to cease those plunks for the government any time soon. Heether is a Brewers minor leaguer, and appears to have played at every level of their organization except the majors - and at every position. Jon Jay is a Cardinals minor leaguer who got hit 12 times for AAA Memphis in 2009. Also notable is Brendan Katin, with 3 plunks in just 31 plate appearances so far - he's been hit 40 times at various minor league levels for the Brewers system.

Name	Team	HBP	Plate Appearances	HBP per PA
Adam Heether (MIL)	Leones del Caracas	5	68	0.074
Jon Jay (STL)	Leones del Caracas	5	71	0.070
Ezequiel Carrera (SEA)	Navegantes del Magallanes	4	70	0.057
Dennys Abreu	Bravos de Margarita	3	33	0.091
Luis Gonzalez	Caribes de Anzoategui	3	58	0.052
David Paisano (TEX)	Tiburones de La Guaira	3	49	0.061
Brendan Katin (MIL)	Aguilas de Zulia	3	31	0.097
Daniel Dorn (CIN)	Caribes de Anzoategui	3	45	0.067

Burnett fails to break Yankee's record for postseason plunking

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:32:00 +0000

Postseason HBPs of note: October 22, 2009

AJ Burnett went into last night's ALCS game 5 having already hit 4 batters this postseason - that's the most batters any Yankee has plunked in a single postseason, but for career postseason plunks, he's tied with 4 other Yankees pitchers. Roger Clemans, David Wells, Jeff Nelson and Orlando Hernandez have all hit 4 batters in their postseason careers with the Yankees, but Burnett failed to break his tie with them last night. He didn't hit anyone.

Robinson Cano got hit by Brian Fuentes, in the only plunking of the game. Fuentes had never hit a batter before in the postseason, but Cano has now been hit twice this year in postseason play. He's tied with Mike Napoli, Jimmy Rollins, Russell Martin and Shane Victorino for the most HBPs in this years playoffs, and he's the 21st Yankee with at least 2 postseason HBPs. That was also the 99th time a Yankee batter has been plunked in postseason play, and the third Yankee plunked on October 22nd.

Rollins becomes first batter plunked twice while clinching NLCS

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:33:00 +0000

Postseason HBPs of note: October 21, 2009

Jimmy Rollins got hit by two pitches last night making him the first batter ever to get plunked twice in the clinching game of the NLCS. That also puts Rollins in a tie for the most postseason plunks in Phillies franchise history, with Greg Luzinski, Garry Maddox and Shane Victorino - who got his 2nd postseason plunk last night as well. The Phillies are the 3rd team to get hit 3 times while clinching the NLCS, along with the 2002 Giants and 1999 Braves.

George Sherrill hit Victorino, making that the 3rd time he's hit a batter in the 2009 postseason. That ties him with Tommy John and Don Sutton for 1st place on the Dodgers all time postseason hbp list. He and Tommy John are the only Dodgers pitchers to hit 3 batters in the postseason in a single year. Sherrill also now holds the postseason plunking record for pitchers born in Tennessee with his 3 hit batters. No other person born in Tennessee has hit more than 1 batter in the post season.

Ervin Santana breaks Angel's postseason plunking record!

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:28:00 +0000

Postseason HBPs of note: October 20, 2009

Ervin Santana hit Nick Swisher with a pitch last night, making that the third time Santana has hit a batter in the postseason... which is a new franchise record for the Angels. Paul Byrd and Jarrod Washburn had each hit two postseason batters for the Angels, but Santana has now hit 3. Santana is also the 16th pitcher to hit at least two Yankees batters in postseason play, but he'll have to hit two more Yankees just to tie Pedro Martinez in the category of hitting Yankees in the postseason.

Nick Swisher was the 56th batter plunked for the Yankees in the postseason, and they've now been hit 98 times in postseason play.

Ruiz plunk leads to walkoff win

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:44:00 +0000

Postseason HBPs of note: October 19, 2009

Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz stepped to the plate down by 1 run in the 9th inning last night, with one out and a runner on first, and did what needed to be done - he got hit by a pitch. But two batters later, he came around to score the game's winning run on a walkoff double by Jimmy Rollins. As you may recall, the last time a batter got hit by a pitch that put him on base to score the winning run in a walkoff was game 3 of the world series last year, when it was Carlos Ruiz himself hitting the game winner, driving in Eric Bruntlett who had reached on a plunk. The only other plunk in postseason history that resulted in the game ending run being scored by the plunked runner was in NLDS game 1 between the Marlins and Giants in 1997. Charles Johnson got plunked in the 9th in that one, and scored the winning run on an Edgar Renteria single.

Shane Victorino also got plunked yesterday, but he got his in the 8th inning, and did not score a run. But that made him the first player born in Hawaii to get hit by a pitch in a postseason game in the Majors. Ruiz was the first player born in Panama to get a postseaon plunk.

George Sherrill threw Victorino's plunk, giving him 2 this postseason, which leaves him tied for 2nd on the Dodgers career list, behind Tommy John and Don Sutton who both hit 3 batters in postseason play for the Dodgers. John threw all 3 in 1977, so Sherrill is one short of the Dodgers single-postseason record as well. 8 other pitchers have hit 2 postseason batters for the Dodgers. Jonathon Broxton became the 11th pitcher from Georgia to hit a batter in the postseason.

LCS plunk rates

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Here are the game-by-game plunk rates for each League Championship Series. Because you need to know these things. (This year is not included).

American League Championship Series plunk rates by game:

Game	PA per HBP	Total HBP
1	163.1	18
2	129.7	23
3	182.5	16
4	177	14
5	72.8	27
6	94.6	10
7	76.7	6

National League Championship Series plunk rates by game:

Game	PA per HBP	Total HBP
1	139.1	21
2	272.5	11
3	194.6	15
4	212.3	12
5	141.4	14
6	99.5	13
7	64.8	9

NLCS game 3 -also plunkless

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:09:00 +0000

Nobody got hit in yesterday's NLCS game 3, making that the 26th time the 3rd game of the NLCS has been plunkless. Last season, two batters were hit in game 3 of the NLCS, setting a record for NLCS game 3.
The Phillies still have not been plunked this season, even though their franchise record is right there waiting to be broken at just 2 HBPs. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard are both one postseason HBP behind Phillies record holders Greg Luzinski and Garry Maddox, who both got hit twice in the postseason while playing for the Phillies. Last year, the Phillies didn't get hit by a pitch until game 3 of the World Series.

AJ Burnett becomes first two plunk two in two games

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:02:00 +0000

Postseason HBPs of note: October 17, 2009

AJ Burnett hit Kendry Morales and Chone Figgins in yesterday's Yankees win over the Angels, and that performance made Burnett the first pitcher ever to have two multi-plunk games in the same postseason. Burnett hit two Twins on October 9th. He joins Tim Wakefield, Mark Mulder and Mike Boddiker as the only pitchers with 2 multi-plunk postseason games in their career, but none but Burnett had both games in the same year. Burnett is up to 4 HBPs this season, which ties him with Pedro Martinez in 2004 and Roy Oswalt in 2005 for the most plunks in a single postseason. And the chances look good that Burnett will get another opportunity to pitch this postseason, and to break the single year plunking record.

On Friday, Pedro Martinez hit Russel Martin, giving Pedro 7 career postseason plunks, which is more than any two othe pitchers from the Dominican Republic, and behind only Tim Wakefield and Greg Maddux on the career postseason plunks list. Martin has now been hit 4 times in the postseason, which moves him into the all time lead for Canadian postseason HBPs, ahead of Larry Walker and Corey Koskie. Martin is also the Dodgers all time leader in postseason plunks, in case you missed it last week.

NLCS game 1 - plunkless

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Historically, batters have been hit 51.2% more often in NLCS game 1 in odd numbered years than in even numbered years, so that should have made this a good year for NLCS game one plunks. But there weren't any. Nobody got hit in this years NLCS game 1... so MAYBE the plunk rates in odd years versus even years isn't that relevent. On the other hand, NLCS game 1s played in years evenly divisible by 3 have HBP per plate appearance rates 23.2% higher than years no divisible by 3, so that makes sense since 2009 is not divisible by 3. And yet, 2009 is evenly divisible by 7, and plunk rates in NLCS game 1 in years evenly divisible by 7 are 107.8% higher than in NLCS game 1s in other years, which makes this year's lack of plunks a mystery once again. This is the first year in which an NLCS has been played that's also divisible by 7 in which a batter wasn't plunked in NLCS game 1. So that's weird.

2009 season final difficulty ratings

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Since there seems to be a lull in the HBP action this offseason, here's a look at the final standings in difficulty ratings for various stats for the 2009 season. Difficulty ratings are explained here or here. Maybe.

HBPs
Chase Utley got hit by a lot of pitches, but he didn't do it by stocking up on plunks against pitchers who throw them in excessive numbers. In fact, the pitchers who plunked Utley where, as a group, right on the major league average in plunks thrown per batter faced. Kelly Shoppach, on the other hand, got a lot of relatively cheap and easy plunks, being hit by pitchers who just hit a lot of batters. By difficulty rating, Shoppach's 19 plunks were only equivalent to 13.8 plunks against average pitchers. Kevin Youkilis and Jason Kendall, on the other hand, got some style points by being hit by guys who don't throw a lot of plunks, so they would have each needed another 2 plunks to equal their difficulty scores if they only got hit by average pitchers.

Player	HBP	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Chase Utley	24	2819	117.4
Jason Kendall	17	2305	135.6
Kevin Youkilis	16	2127	133
Carlos Quentin	15	2078	138.5
Shin-Soo Choo	17	1945	114.4
Ryan Braun	13	1796	138.2
Andre Ethier	13	1656	127.4
Brandon Inge	17	1655	97.3
Kelly Shoppach	18	1620	90
Kevin Kouzmanoff	11	1514	137.6
Josh Willingham	12	1373	114.4
Chris Iannetta	11	1352	122.9
Russell Martin	11	1288	117.1
Aaron Rowand	14	1282	91.5
Hanley Ramirez	9	1247	138.5
Marlon Byrd	10	1230	123
Ryan Garko	10	1221	122.1
Matt Diaz	13	1217	93.6
Milton Bradley	11	1181	107.4

Hit batters
Just like it's easier to get hit by Dave Bush than is to get hit by Andy Pettitte, it's much easier to plunk Brandon Inge than it is to plunk Chone Figgins, so we can apply the same theory to the pitchers and rank their Hit Batter totals by difficulty rating. Dave Bush may have hit the most batters, but Joba Chamberlain did the best job hitting batters who don't get hit very often. Tim Stauffer really went for the difficulty ratings, coming in fourth with only 5 plunks thrown - he was the only pitcher to hit Rafael Furcal in 680 plate appearances, and the only pitcher to plunk Dexter Fowler in 518 plate appearances.

Player	Hit Batters	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Joba Chamberlain	12	1846	153.8
Chad Gaudin	8	1768	221
David Bush	15	1756	117.1
Tim Stauffer	5	1461	292.2
Kevin Millwood	11	1453	132.1
Jeff Suppan	11	1380	125.5
A.J. Burnett	10	1336	133.6
Edgar Gonzalez	6	1329	221.5
Johnny Cueto	14	1322	94.4
Brian Bass	5	1297	259.4
Vicente Padilla	8	1255	156.8
Rich Harden	6	1236	206
Fausto Carmona	8	1232	154
Scott Feldman	9	1184	131.6
John Lackey	9	1171	130.1
Jorge De La Rosa	9	1158	128.6
Chris Perez	6	1041	173.4
Ervin Santana	10	1027	102.7
Jamie Moyer	10	1007	100.7

Home Runs
These are the players who were the best at hitting a lot of home runs, and hitting them against pitchers who give up relatively few home runs. Miguel Cabrera hit 34 homers, but didn't make the list because he's rated as the most guilty of pumping up his home run totals against pitchers who give up a lot of longballs. His 34 real life homers had a difficulty rating equal to just 28 homers against average pitching.

Player	HR	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Mark Reynolds	44	1991	45.3
Prince Fielder	46	1897	41.2
Ryan Howard	45	1814	40.3
Albert Pujols	47	1671	35.5
Adrian Gonzalez	40	1446	36.1
Adam Dunn	38	1444	38
Kendry Morales	34	1384	40.7
Jayson Werth	36	1383	38.4
Ryan Zimmerman	33	1356	41.1
Raul Ibanez	34	1352	39.8

Home Runs Allowed
These are the pitchers who gave up the most homers to guys who are not normally what you'd consider homer run threats. Braden Looper tops the list mostly on sheer volume, but Jonathon Sanchez comes in second thanks largely to being the only pitcher to give up a homer to Luis Castillo in 580 plate appearances. That's... probably not good.

Player	HR	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Braden Looper	39	1782	45.7
Jonathan Sanchez	19	1576	82.9
Bronson Arroyo	31	1390	44.8
Derek Holland	26	1360	52.3
Jeremy Guthrie	35	1322	37.8
Kevin Millwood	26	1226	47.2
Johnny Cueto	24	1206	50.2
Chris Volstad	29	1187	40.9
John Danks	28	1156	41.3
Luke Hochevar	23	1088	47.3

Strikouts (pitchers)
Overall, batters struck out once every 5.6 plate appearances so you can see that the batters struck out by Justin Verlander and Tim Lincecum were pretty close to average on the difficulty rating. CC Sabathia is the standout of the group since his 197 strikeouts would have been equivalent to 215 strikouts against average batters.

Player	K	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Justin Verlander	269	1530	5.7
Tim Lincecum	261	1442	5.5
Zack Greinke	242	1394	5.8
Jon Lester	225	1327	5.9
Javier Vazquez	238	1294	5.4
Felix Hernandez	217	1273	5.9
Dan Haren	223	1218	5.5
C.C. Sabathia	197	1200	6.1
Josh Beckett	199	1194	6
Adam Wainwright	212	1172	5.5

Strikeouts (batters)
Mark Reynolds strike out with ridiculous frequency, but a lot of those strikeouts were against pitchers who strike out lots of batters. His 223 strikeouts only had a difficulty rating equal to 213 strikeouts against average pitchers. Of course 213 strikeouts is still awful, just not as bad as 223. Good thing he hits a lot of homers.

Player	K	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Mark Reynolds	223	1191	5.3
Jack Cust	185	1071	5.8
Ryan Howard	186	1037	5.6
Adam Dunn	177	971	5.5
Brandon Inge	170	949	5.6
Jason Bay	162	938	5.8
Carlos Pena	163	909	5.6
Russell Branyan	149	863	5.8
Mike Cameron	156	849	5.4
Chris Davis	150	844	5.6

Walks (not including intentional walks)
Chone Figgins appears to be a big fan of inflating his walk total against pitchers who throw a lot of walks. Maybe his new "patience at the plate" the TBS announcers have been talking about is really just a better understanding of which pitchers give up a lot of walks, and therefor are the ones you should swing less against. Anyway, walks were handed out to about 1 in every 12.1 batters, so Figgins' 101 walks were equivalent in difficulty to about 97 walks against average pitchers.

Player	BB	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Adam Dunn	100	1303	13
Adrian Gonzalez	97	1221	12.6
Nick Johnson	95	1204	12.7
Chone Figgins	101	1181	11.7
Nick Swisher	95	1149	12.1
Marco Scutaro	90	1126	12.5
Kosuke Fukudome	90	1110	12.3
Jason Bay	90	1097	12.2
Jack Cust	88	1096	12.5
Lance Berkman	83	1068	12.9

Walks Allowed (not including intentional walks)
Here are the guys who walked the most batters who don't get issued a lot of walks. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw really went out of his way to walk some guys that no one else wanted to walk - he was the only pitcher to walk Adam Wainwright this year, as well as the only pitcher to walk Jason Hammel - and he did that twice.

Player	BB	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Doug Davis	102	1238	12.1
Clayton Kershaw	87	1177	13.5
A.J. Burnett	97	1156	11.9
Yovani Gallardo	89	1059	11.9
Jorge De La Rosa	80	1040	13
Jonathan Sanchez	83	994	12
Ubaldo Jimenez	79	983	12.4
Chad Billingsley	79	977	12.4
Ian Snell	80	977	12.2
Jason Marquis	74	965	13

Sacrifice Flies
Sacrifice Flying is largely a lost art... or a never found art. But Casey Blake sacrificed in the most fly manner this year, accumulating a difficulty score equivalent to 12.7 sac flies against average pitching in only 10 Sacrifice Flies. Adrian Gonzalez also hit some impressively unlikely sacrifice flies, including the only one allowed this year by Paul Maholm (836 total batters faced), and the only one allowed by Charlie Morton (416 batters faced).

Player	SF	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Casey Blake	10	1738	173.8
Bengie Molina	11	1580	143.7
Garret Anderson	9	1503	167
Adrian Gonzalez	4	1473	368.3
Ryan Zimmerman	9	1347	149.7
Jeff Francoeur	9	1299	144.3
Todd Helton	10	1232	123.2
Randy Winn	8	1207	150.9
Bobby Abreu	9	1181	131.2
Fernando Tatis	4	1179	294.8

Sacrifice Flies Allowed
Grady Sizemore was nearly shut out in the Sac Fly column in 2009, in 503 plate appearance, but Armando Galarraga gave one up to him. Nobody else did. Jeremy Guthrie gave up Johnny Damon's only sac fly in 626 plate appearances. (By the way, sacrifice flies occured 7.8% more often at this season's yankee stadium than they did at last season's yankee stadium, so not every ball flies out of the new park. Although, the increase in sac flies may be due to more batters thinking that every fly ball will be a homer due to the April hype, and swinging for the fences more often)

Player	SF	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Armando Galarraga	11	1566	142.4
Jeremy Guthrie	8	1517	189.7
Chad Billingsley	11	1499	136.3
Chad Gaudin	8	1429	178.7
Livan Hernandez	10	1401	140.1
Zach Duke	10	1254	125.4
Brian Bannister	10	1227	122.7
Felix Hernandez	11	1166	106
Jason Marquis	10	1138	113.8
Brian Tallet	7	1113	159

Hits
Hits occured about once every 4.3 plate appearances in 2009, so most of these guys faced pitchers who were really close to the league average. (There just isn't that much variance from pitcher to pitcher in hits allowed per plate appearance, compared to something like HBPs per plate appearance). But, it looks like Robinson Cano found a few extra hits against weak pitching to put him over the 200 hits mark. His total difficulty score for his 204 hits was equivalent to just 195 hits against average pitching.

Player	H	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Ichiro Suzuki	225	970	4.3
Derek Jeter	212	895	4.2
Miguel Tejada	199	881	4.4
Ryan Braun	203	877	4.3
Miguel Cabrera	198	845	4.3
Robinson Cano	204	840	4.1
Aaron Hill	195	836	4.3
Hanley Ramirez	197	831	4.2
Felipe Lopez	187	823	4.4
Joe Mauer	191	820	4.3

Hits Allowed
This would be the list of pitchers who gave up the most hits to batters who did get a lot of hits, but most of these pitchers faced groups of batters who were just about average. James Shields is down the list somewhat from his total hit rank, because he gave up more hits against batters who are easy to give up hits to.

Player	H	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Cliff Lee	245	1057	4.3
Nick Blackburn	240	1023	4.3
Jon Garland	225	1008	4.5
Derek Lowe	232	998	4.3
Braden Looper	226	997	4.4
James Shields	239	992	4.2
Zach Duke	231	992	4.3
Roy Halladay	234	991	4.2
Carl Pavano	235	988	4.2
Jason Marquis	218	964	4.4

Foul Balls Hit
Once again, there just isn't that much variation among foul ball rates for pitchers.

Player	fouls	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Brian Roberts	574	3246	5.7
Andre Ethier	538	3090	5.7
Pablo Sandoval	529	3010	5.7
Todd Helton	531	3008	5.7
Carl Crawford	526	2951	5.6
Ryan Howard	503	2915	5.8
Jose Lopez	512	2906	5.7
Jayson Werth	508	2903	5.7
Ichiro Suzuki	507	2883	5.7
Aaron Hill	504	2881	5.7

Foul Balls Allowed
Sure, why not.

Player	Fouls	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Justin Verlander	860	4884	5.7
Scott Baker	805	4523	5.6
Cliff Lee	758	4269	5.6
Randy Wolf	701	3973	5.7
Edwin Jackson	680	3874	5.7
Matt Cain	673	3860	5.7
Roy Halladay	652	3741	5.7
C.C. Sabathia	655	3723	5.7
Matt Garza	634	3677	5.8
Jon Lester	646	3676	5.7

Missed Swings
These are the batters who swung and missed the most against pitchers who don't cause that many swinging strikes (not to be confused with actual strikeouts - these are just swinging strikes, with difficulty based on swinging strikes per pitch). Whiffs occured about once every 11.8 pitches, so Mark Reynolds swung and missed 478 times against a group of pitchers who caused slightly more swings and misses than average. Russel Branyon, Jack Cust and Miguel Olivo did more swinging and missing against pitchers who don't make a lot of batters miss.

Player	Whiffs	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Mark Reynolds	478	5542	11.6
Ryan Howard	446	5300	11.9
Russell Branyan	337	4201	12.5
Carlos Pena	346	4179	12.1
Jack Cust	316	3964	12.5
Brad Hawpe	324	3962	12.2
Miguel Olivo	312	3885	12.5
Chris Davis	315	3727	11.8
Brandon Inge	308	3595	11.7
Shin-Soo Choo	298	3548	11.9

Whiffs Caused
Justin Verlander caused 442 missed swings, and those batters he caused to swing and miss averaged a whiff every 12.3 pitches - which means they whiffed less often then the league average which is 1 miss per 11.8 pitches. But he also caused the most overall swings and misses, before applying the difficulty score. CC Sabathia was especially good at getting batters who don't miss the ball often to miss against him. His 391 whiffs caused had a difficulty equal to 420 swinging strikes against average batters.

Player	Whiffs	Difficulty Rating	Average Difficulty
Justin Verlander	442	5434	12.3
C.C. Sabathia	391	4971	12.7
Javier Vazquez	410	4747	11.6
Rich Harden	372	4549	12.2
Tim Lincecum	371	4457	12
Felix Hernandez	383	4422	11.5
Jon Lester	364	4356	12
Cole Hamels	364	4342	11.9
Dan Haren	365	4320	11.8
Zack Greinke	344	4161	12.1

So, this information will probably help you when you least expect it. Better print it out and carry it around in your pocket.

Division Series wrap-up

noreply@blogger.com (pbr) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:21:00 +0000

Nobody got hit by a pitch in yesterday's final division series round game, but overall 12 batters were hit in the first round of this year's playoffs. That's the most plunks in the divisional round since 2005, when that year's playoff teams combined for a record 20 division series HBPs. In terms of HBPs per game, it was the fourth most ever, with .923 HBPs per game. The Red Sox didn't move on to the next round, but they did defend their lead on the all time list of teams who have hit the most batters in the divisional round. They hit 3 Angels batters this year, bringing their DS total to 25 plunks. The Yankees are right behind them with 24 division series plunks thrown, but third place belongs to Cleveland with 13 plunks.
The Yankees weren't plunked in the Division Series, but they've still been hit more times than any other team in the Division round with 25 plunks.