average guys
A lot has been written (mostly here) about who's been hit by the most pitches, and who's been hit be the fewest pitches, but what about the guys in the middle? Baseball rewards the extremes, but what about the majority between those extremes? Someday, as a companion to the All Star Game, maybe MLB could put on an Average Guys game featuring all those utility infielders and journeymen with solid middle of the road stats that become fan favorites.
Until then, here's the top 5 players whose career HBPs per season come the closest to the Major League average for the seasons they played. Darryl Motley is the most average, getting hit 0.7143 times per season from 1981 to 1987. The league average for that time frame was 0.7149 (including every player with at least 1 plate appearance).
HBP per season | League Average | Career | |
Darryl Motley | 0.7143 | 0.7149 | 1981-1987 |
Rich Chiles | 0.8333 | 0.8327 | 1971-1978 |
Tommy Neill | 0.5000 | 0.5008 | 1946-1947 |
Goody Rosen | 0.5714 | 0.5703 | 1937-1946 |
Nelson Santovenia | 0.8571 | 0.8558 | 1987-1993 |
Top 5 most average get-hitters among active players (stats through '04):
HBP per season | League Average | Career | |
Jose Offerman* | 1.1333 | 1.1250 | 1990-2004 |
Todd Walker | 1.2727 | 1.2626 | 1996-2004 |
Randall Simon | 1.3333 | 1.3149 | 1997-2004 |
Jayson Werth | 1.3333 | 1.3572 | 2002-2004 |
Marcus Thames | 1.3333 | 1.3572 | 2002-2004 |
Jamey Carroll | 1.3333 | 1.3572 | 2002-2004 |
*Offerman might not actually be active at this point.
And just for comparison, and to mention Craig Biggio, here are the Top 5 most above average get-hitters among active players (through '04):
HBP per season | League Average | Career | |
Jason Kendall | 19.6667 | 1.2603 | 1996-2004 |
David Eckstein | 19.0000 | 1.3708 | 2001-2004 |
Craig Wilson | 17.7500 | 1.3708 | 2001-2004 |
Reed Johnson | 16.0000 | 1.3736 | 2003-2004 |
Craig Biggio | 15.0588 | 1.0969 | 1988-2004 |
2 Comments:
Hmmm....Tommy Neill only had 50-something PA his whole career. Because of this small sample size, it's hard to tell if his freakishly average HBP ratio is real or just a fluke. Maybe he's not so amazingly average after all?
(How about average pitchers?)
a guy named greg williams, catcher for the SC Knights got hit 4 times in one game. Beat that Craig.
http://www.scknights.com/news/2005/news_spring4.html
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