Getting the hang of Thursdays

Yesterday my post centered on the idea that Craig Biggio, like Arthur Dent, couldn't quite get the hang of Thursdays. As if to answer, he went 2-5 with 2 homeruns, raising his Thursday batting average to .281, and he didn't even have to get hit by a pitch to do it. In response to Puma's argument that Biggio has had fewer hits on Thursday because he has played less games on Thursday, I'd like to point out that Biggio has played less games on Monday than on Thursday, but on Mondays he bats .305. But, I'm all in favor of interpreting statistics in whatever way best illustrates your point, so feel free to disagree. I'll look at the question of whether pitchers who hit batters will logically give up more hits and higher opponents batting averages another time, but in general I don't think I buy it. I think many of the pitches that hit Biggio are right where the pitcher intended them to be, not a sign of lack of control. But, I'll talk about that more another time once I've found a way to twist the statistics to prove my point.

To answer Palatine Pete's question, I don't yet have plunks by inning. I haven't found a website that has the inning by inning game logs from 1993-2001, so if anyone knows where I can find those, I'd appreciate hearing about it (plunkbiggioATgmailDOTcom except without the obvious spammer deception tricks) and be able to answer more questions about situational plunkings.

Today's opposition is Kirk Rueter, a two time offender. He drilled Pigpen on 5/4/1996 and 7/17/1998. Rueter has only drilled 0.3% of the batters he's faced during his career.

Biggio has been hit only once on May 13th, in 1997 by Armando Reynoso.