Plunk Everyone

Winter league update - plunks in warm weather

2009-11-10T11:51:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-05T06:18:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-04T12:57:00.003-05:00

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)

2009-11-03T06:12:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-02T06:19:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-01T07:55:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-30T08:45:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-29T10:11:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-27T06:23:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-23T06:32:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-22T05:33:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-10-21T05:28:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-20T05:44:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-19T12:56:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-19T06:09:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-18T09:02:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-16T06:24:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-15T07:02:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-13T07:21:00.002-04:00

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.

Mike Napoli ties Angels record

2009-10-12T05:54:00.002-04:00

Postseason HBPs of note: October 11, 2009

Mike Napoli was the only batter hit by a pitch in Sunday's Division Series action. He got hit by Clay Buchholz, bringing his career postseason total to 3 - which ties him with Bengie Molina and Bobby Grich for the most postseason plunks in Angels team history. And, since the Angels finished off the Red Sox, he'll have at least 4 more games to take sole possession of the record, against the team who led the AL in plunks thrown in the 2009 regular season.

Buchholz became the 40th pitcher in Red Sox history to hit a batter in the post season, dating back to October 3, 1903 when Cy Young was the first Sox pitcher to plunk someone in the World Series.

Plunked batters got 3 for 3

2009-10-09T06:38:00.002-04:00

Postseason HBPs of note: October 8, 2009

Troy Tulowitzki got hit by a pitch yesterday afternoon for the Rockies, and the Rockies went on to win the game. Jim Thome got hit for the Dodger, leading to a Dodgers win, and Torri Hunter got hit by a pitch during the Angels win. All three batters who got hit by a pitch went on to victory, which is no coincidence - prior to this year, the team that gets hit by more pitches has won 254 postseason games, and lost 171. That's a .598 win pct for the team with more plunks, but that's actually slightly less than the combined regular season win pct for the more plunked team from 1960 to 2008, of .599. In Division Series games though, teams that get hit by more pitches than there opponents have won 70 games and lost 34 prior to this year - for a .673 win pct. Wednesday, Matt Tolbert got hit by a pitch and lost with the Twins, while the Dodgers and Cardinals plunked each other and equal number of times, so this year's tally is 3 wins and 1 loss for the team who gets plunked the most.

Thome's plunk was the third of his postseason career, and the first postseason plunking thrown by Adam Wainwright. That was also the 30th plunk in postseason history for the Dodgers franchise. Troy Tulowitzki got first postseason HBP, but it was the 2nd time Brett Myers has hit someone in a postseason game. And, Torri Hunter got plunked by Ramon Ramirez, which tied Hunter for the all time postseason HBP record for batters born in Arkansas, with 1. Willie "3-dog" Davis (1965) and Taylor Douthit (1928) were the other two Arkansas born batters plunked in post season play.

Cards and Dodgers plunk each other 4 times

2009-10-08T06:02:00.003-04:00

Postseason HBPs of note: October 7, 2009

Matt Tolbert was on the receiving end of the first HBP of the 2009 postseason, getting hit by CC Sabathia pitch, but it was the Dodgers and Cardinals who really got things going. They plunked each other a total of 4 times, with each team throwing 2 plunks. That's the first Division Series ever to include 4 HBPs, and the first National League playoff game with 4 HBPs. Previously only 2 playoff games have ever included 4 HBPs, were ALCS game 5 in 1987, and ALCS game 5 in 1997.

Russel Martin got plunked with the bases loaded in the 6th inning, by Cardinals pitcher Kyle McLellan, making that the first postseason RBI plunk since October 6, 2005. That one was also thrown by the Cardinals, during NLDS game 2 against the Padres Xavier Nady. That was just the 12th RBI plunk ever achieved in postseason play. Martin has now been hit 3 times in postseason play, which is now the Dodgers franchise record. Pedro Guerrero, Dusty Baker, Jim Gilliam, and Steve Sax were all tie with Martin at 2 plunks in Dodgers postseason history before yesterday.

2009 American League Awards for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence, or at least weird stats no one else is looking at

2009-10-07T12:02:00.000-04:00

Most Plunkable Player Award - AL (most HBPs by a batter):

Kelly Shoppach (Indians) - 18 HBPs

Shoppach led all American League batters by getting hit by 18 pitches, and even more impressively he did that while only playing 89 games. He got hit once every 18.2 plate appearances, which means his rate of plunks per plate appearance was 57.6% better than overall leader Chase Utley's. If he had as many plate appearances as Utley, and maintained the same rate, Shoppach would have been hit around 37 times.

The Phil Knell Award - AL (most batters plunked by a pitcher):

Joba Chamberlain (Yankees) - 12 HBPs

Joba had only hit 3 batters coming into this year, so he was a surprise winner of the AL Phil Knell Award - named after the old American Association pitcher who once hit 54 batters in a season. Because pitching awards need to be named after someone, for some reason.

Mitch Williams Award - AL (most hit batters by a relief pitcher):

Jamey Wright (Royals) - 7
Brandon League (Blue Jays) - 7

Wright has made an impressive transition from hitting a lot of batters as a starter, to hitting a lot of batters as a reliever. He adds this award to the two seasons he led the NL in overall plunks. Brandon League tied for the American League lead in relief plunkings, but he led the Brandon League in overall plunks, beating Brandon McCarthy (3), Brandon Medders (3), Brandon Lyon (2) and Brandon Webb (1) in total hit batters.

Plunked Rookie of the Year - AL (most HBPs by a rookie):

Chris Getz (White Sox) - 6
Elvis Andrus (Rangers) - 6
Gordon Beckham (White Sox) - 6

The Gus Weyhig Award - AL (most plunks thrown by a rookie):

Ricky Romero (Blue Jays) - 10

Sandy Alomar Award - AL (most plate appearance without an HBP):

Orlando Cabrera (A's/Twins) - 708 plate appearance, 0 HBPs

The Chick Fraser Award - AL (most batters faced without hitting anyone)

Scott Richmond (Blue Jays) - 610 batters faced, none hit

Most Plunked Team - AL (the plunk pennant):

Cleveland Indians - 81 HBPs

I bit of a slow year after their modern record 103 plunks last season, but still 11 more than the next most plunked AL team

Least Plunked Team - AL:

Texas Rangers - 37 HBPs

Most Plunks Thrown - AL:

New York Yankees - 71 hit batters

Fewest Plunks Thrown - AL:

Oakland A's - 36 hit batters

American League All Plunk Team:

1st Base: Kevin Youkilis (Red Sox) - 11 HBPs at 1B, 16 overall (Teixeira also had 11 as a first basemen, but he had only 12 overall)

2nd Base: Placido Polanco (Tigers) - 9 HBP, all as 2B

Short Stop: Nick Green (Red Sox) - 8 HBP, all as SS

3rd Base: Brandon Inge (Tigers) - 17 HBP, all as 3B

Left Field: Carlos Quentin (White Sox) - 15 HBP, all as Left Fielder

Center Field: Marlon Byrd (Rangers) - 9 HBPs as Center Fielder, 10 overall

Right Field: Shin-Soo Choo (Indians) - 14 HBPS as Right Fielder, 17 overall

Catcher: Kelly Shoppach (Indians) - 17 HBPs as Catcher, 18 overall

Designated Hitter: David Ortiz (Red Sox) - 5 HBP, all as DH

2009 AL BACON Title:

Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) - .894 BACON

It may only have been Ichiro's 4th best season in total hits, with 225, but it was his most consistent season, with an .894 Bacon. Ichiro only had 68 at-bats in games in which he didn't have a hit. He batted .352 overall, and .394 in games in which he had at least one hit. When studies of Bacon get further back into baseball history, this will stand out as one of the best seasons ever. Ichiro's prior best season Bacon was in his 2001 season, when he had a .883.

2009 AL BACON x HBP Title:

Shin-Soo Choo (Indians) - 12.16

An impressive year for Choo in a stat that looks like fun, but doesn't make a lot of sense. It might show that Choo balanced the two skills of getting hit by a lot of pitches, and getting hits consistently from day to day.

2009 AL BACON x Hits Title:

Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) - 201.06

Most Swings - AL (not including bunt attempts):

Aaron Hill - 1,293 swings

Most Swings that Missed - AL (not including bunt attempts):

Carlos Pena - 346 whiffs

Save a Tree award - AL (most plate appearances in which the batter did not risk damaging his bat by swinging it, not including intentional walks... or, most plate appearances with 0 swings):

Marco Scutaro - 78 swingless plate appearance. If only MLB kept stats on broken bats, we could calculate how many trees he save by just standing and watching pitches in those 78 plate appearances.

Most Foul Balls - AL

Brian Roberts - 574 foul balls

Best Contact PCT - AL

Marco Scutaro - 93.7% (Scutaro edged Placido Polanco 93.67% to 93.61%)

Fastest recorded plunk Received - AL

Paul Konerko (White Sox) - 98.2 MPH thrown by Daniel Bard (Red Sox) on August 24th

Fastest recorded plunk Thrown - AL

Daniel Bard (Red Sox) - 99.1 MPH thrown at Raul Ibanez (Phillies) on June 12th

Teen Wolf Award - AL (Most Home Runs on dates of full moons)

Grady Sizemore (Indians) - 4

(This would have been an HBP stat, but Teen Wolf seemed like a ball hog on the basketball court, which implies he'd have been more inclined to try to hit solo homers all day rather than help his team with an HBP)

Most plunks by day of the Week - AL

Sunday - Jason Bay (BOS), Adrian Beltre (SEA), Russell Branyan (SEA), Kelly Shoppach (CLE), - 4
Monday - Adam Jones (BAL) - 3
Tuesday - Kevin Youkilis (BOS) - 4
Wednesday - Gerald Laird (DET), Carlos Quentin (CHW) - 4
Thursday - Shin-Soo Choo (CLE) - 4
Friday - Brandon Inge (DET) - 5
Saturday - Carlos Quentin (CHW), Paul Konerko (CHW), Kevin Youkilis (BOS) - 5

Most plunks against a single team - AL

Brandon Inge - 6 plunks vs the Minnesota Twins, not counting the one that he didn't get in the playoff game.

Most plunks against pitchers from Canada - AL

Carlos Quentin - 3

Inge denied 18th plunk

2009-10-07T05:35:00.002-04:00

HBPs of note: October 6, 2009

Brandon Inge stepped to the plate in top the 12th inning with the bases loaded and a chance to drive in a go-ahead run or four, in last nights tiebreaker playoff game at the Metrodome. He also stepped to the plate with 17 plunks on the season, one behind Kelly Shoppach for the American League HBP title. The first pitch appeared to brush Inge's shirt, which would have driven in the go-ahead run for the Twins, but the umpire ruled that it didn't hit him. That may have cost the Tigers the game, and a trip to the playoffs, but more importantly it cost Inge a share of the AL Most Plunkable Player award. Now, if the umpire had any question in his mind about whether or not the ball hit Inge, maybe he should have been aware the he'd already been hit 6 times this season by the Minnesota Twins and 17 times overall. If it had been any other player, it would be pretty safe to assume the Twins had not plunked him, but that was Brandon Inge - the only player in the past 25 years to get hit 6 times by the Twins.

There were two official HBPs in the game - Brendan Harris got plunked by Zach Miner in the 6th inning, becoming the first player hit by a pitch in a tiebreaker playoff game since Jeff Kent got plunked by Steve Trachsel in the 1998 AL Central playoff game. Also, Aubrey Huff got plunked by Jesse Crain in the 10th inning, and his pinch runner came to score a go ahead run - though the lead did not hold. Also, #9 hitter Nick Punto jumped out of the way of a sure plunking in the bottom of the eleventh inning that would have loaded the bases with 1 out and the top of the Twins batting order coming up - which may have ended the game quicker than the inning ending double play Punto eventually hit into (on a shallow attempt at a sacrifice fly). But, Punto has only been hit twice in 2,530 plate appearances, which is third worst in the majors among batters who have been hit at least once. When you don't develop good getting-hit skills in games throughout the season, you'll never be able to get that clutch HBP when you're team really needs it, Nick Punto. Fortunately for him, his teammates found a way to win in the 12th.

Huff's plunk was the only HBP ever recorded in an extra inning of a one game playoff, but back when the National League used to play 3-game playoff series to break ties for the pennant (before 1962), Dodgers catcher Joe Pignatano got plunked by Joey Jay in the 11th inning of game 2 of the 1959 NL Pennant playoff series.

2009 National League awards for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence

2009-10-06T12:19:00.001-04:00

Since the National League finished their season when they were supposed to, we can hand out various awards for the year.

Most Plunkable Player Award - NL (most HBPs by a batter):

Chase Utley of the Phillies - 24 HBPs.

This is Utley's third consecutive National League Most Plunkable Player award, which makes him the first player since Craig Biggio to win the award in three consecutive years. Biggio did that in 1995, '96 and '97. Jason Kendall is the runner up this season, with 17 HBPs.

The Phil Knell Award - NL (most batters plunked by a pitcher):

Dave Bush of the Brewers - 15 hit batters.

Dave Bush became the first National League pitcher to hit 15 batters in a season since Dontrelle Willis in 2006.

Mitch Williams Award - NL (most hit batters by a relief pitcher):

Carlos Marmol - Cubs - 12 hit batters.

Plunked Rookie of the Year - NL (most HBPs by a rookie):

Kyle Blanks - Padres - 6 HBPs.

Some voters who have a greater understanding of more complicated statistical methods argued that Adam Rosales of the Reds should win this award because his 5 plunks had a higher lever of difficulty than Blanks' - many of them were Reds fans arguing that Blanks got to get plunked by Johnny Cueto and Rosales didn't. But, these voters were shouted down as nerds, and painted by the media as soft on crime. Or, there were never any voters.

The Gus Weyhig Award - NL (most plunks thrown by a rookie):

Alberto Arias - Astros - 6 hit batters.
Ronald Belisario - Dodgers - 6 hit batters.
Kenshin Kawakami - Braves- 6 hit batters.
JD Martin - Nationals - 6 hit batters.
Randy Wells - Cubs - 6 hit batters.

Sandy Alomar Award - NL (most plate appearance without an HBP):

James Loney - 651 plate appearances, no HBPs.

The Chick Fraser Award - NL (most batters faced without hitting anyone)

Yusmeiro Petit - 407 batters faced, none plunked

Most Plunked Team - NL (the plunk pennant):

Brewers - 71
Phillies - 71

Tie goes to the Brewers on head to head plunkings - they got hit 7 times by the Phillies, but only hit 3 Phillies.

Least Plunked Team - NL:

Mets - 36

Most Plunks Thrown - NL:

Phillies - 75 (The Phillis lead both leagues in hitting batters, after making a 13 plunk charge in the final two weeks of the season)

Fewest Plunks Thrown - NL:

Giants - 41

National League All Plunk Team:

1st Base: Nick Johnson - 11 HBPs while playing 1st, 12 overall

2nd Base: Chase Utley - 24 HBP - all as 2nd baseman

Short Stop: Miguel Tejada - 11 HBP - all at short

3rd Base: Kevin Kouzmanoff - 11 HBP - all at 3rd

Left Field: Ryan Braun - 12 HBP while playing LF - 13 overall

Center Field: Aaron Rowand - 14 HBP - all as Center Fielder

Right Field: Andre Ethier - 13 HBP - all as Right Fielder

Catcher: Jason Kendall - 17 HBP - all as catcher

Pitcher: Kyle Lohse - 2 HBP - and he hit at least one batter in each game in which he got hit.

Pinch Hitter: Wes Helms - 3 HBP

2009 NL BACON Title:
Felipe Lopez - Diamondbacks/Brewers - .800

Lopez batted .310 overall, and .387 in games when he had at least one hit, for an .800 BACON. Scott Rolen would have finished a few thousandths ahead of him if he had enough plate appearance in the NL to qualify for the title, and Carlos Beltran would have beaten them both handily if he had held up his .860 BACON over more than 81 games.

2009 NL BACON x HBP Title:

Chase Utley - 16.69

BACON x HBP measure a batters ability to get hit a lot while hitting consistently, showing that Utley's 24 plunks didn't leave him with any lingering injuries that would cause him to tough through games without being able to hit the ball. Or, it's just a stat I like and doesn't mean much of anything.

2009 NL BACON x Hits Title:

Ryan Braun - 159.2

BACON x Hits is a stat that measures a batter's ability to get a lot of hits, and get them in a consistent manner. Braun led the NL with 203 hits and had an impressive .784 BACON.

Most Swings - NL (not including bunt attempts):

Ryan Howard - Phillies - 1,385 swings

Most Swings that Missed - NL (not including bunt attempts):

Mark Reynolds - Diamondbacks - 478 whiffs

Save a Tree award - NL (most plate appearances in which the batter did not risk damaging his bat by swinging it, not including intentional walks... or, most plate appearances with 0 swings):

Prince Fielder - Brewers - 65 swingless plate appearances

Most Foul Balls - NL

Andre Either - Dodgers - 538

Best Contact PCT - NL

Luis Castillo - Mets - 93.7%

Fastest recorded plunk Received - NL

Raul Ibanez - Phillies - 99.1 mph - thrown by Daniel Bard (BOS) on June 12th

Fastest recorded plunk Thrown - NL

Waldis Joaquin - Giants - 98.7 mph - hit Everth Cabrera (SD) on October 3rd

Teen Wolf Award - NL (Most Home Runs on dates of full moons)

Ryan Ludwick - 4

Most plunks by day of the Week - NL

Sunday - Matt Diaz (Braves) - 5
Monday - Chase Utley (Phillies) - 5
Tuesday - Prince Fielder (Brewers), Willie Harris (Nationals) - 4
Wednesday - Aaron Rowand (Giants) - 5
Thursday - Jason Kendall (Brewers), Ben Francisco (Phillies) - 4
Friday - Chase Utley (Phillies) - 6
Saturday - Kevin Kouzmanoff (Padres), Kyle Blanks (Padres) - 4

Most plunks against a single team - NL

Chase Utley - 6 HBPs vs the Nationals

Most plunks against pitchers from Canada - NL

Ryan Braun - 3 HBPs vs Canadians