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.
2 Comments:
He may bat .305, but how many HITS does he have on Mondays? Either way, the Monday and Thursday games are going to provide a smaller sample size than the other days. The point is that measuring a players stats by days of the week is only good for comic baseball writing, which is what I like about your blog. In the end Biggio's stats all even out and the difference in stats on different days of the week is not significant enough to indicate a direct correlation between the day of the week and performance.
Also, were you trying to say before that Biggio is plunked more because pitchers target him on purpose, or were you saying that he just happens to always be crowding the plate at the wrong time?
I stand by my right to make outrageous claims based on shaky statistics, and look forward to a constitutional amendment protecting that right!
It's much better than making outrageous claims without statistics.
But to answer your question, 306 hits on monday. As for your other question, it is an important one I hope shed light on throughout Biggio's chase for the all time plunk crown.
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