All-Plunk team (infield)

Yesterday I began announcing the Official Plunk Biggio All Time All-Plunk team, beginning with the outfield. Today we'll go through the greatest plunk taking infielders of all time.

Starter:
First Base: Tommie Tucker
Second Base: Craig Biggio
Short Stop: Hughie Jennings
Third Base: John McGraw

Backups:
2B: Ron Hunt
3B: Eddie Yost

The starting 4 have been hit 964 times so far, with 342 on the bench.

1B: Tommie Tucker played a little outfield and pitched a couple of games, but what he did most of the time was play first base and get hit by pitches. 272 plunks stands as 2nd all time for the moment. Tucker led the American Association in plunks in 1887 and 1889 and was the National League HBP leader from 1890-1892.

2B: Craig Biggio gets the edge over Ron Hunt at second base largely because this is a website about Craig Biggio. To date, Biggio and Hunt both have been hit 214 times while playing second base. Hunt had 243 HBPs, the 50 plunk season, and led the National League a record seven consecutive years. But, Biggio has 271 and counting, and 5 league plunk titles. And a web log.

SS: Hughie Jennings. The all time leader often left out of the conversation by not being modern enough. 287 career plunks, with 220 recorded in years when he played at least 75% of his games at short stop. He led the league 5 times, and was plunked 51 times in 1896.

3B: John McGraw was hit 134 times in his career with 99 recorded in years in which he spent 75% of his time at third. He tied Dummy Hoy for the first HBP crown in the American League in 1901. Anyone associated with a guy named Dummy gets extra credit. Eddie Yost makes the team for getting plunked 99 times in 16 seasons at third. Also, since these two were barely plunked at all compared to Jennings, Tucker, Biggio and Hunt, it seemed like a platoon was called for.

another wednesday in the wildcard race

11 pitches were thrown to Craig Biggio by the Reds last night, but none of them hit him as the Astros got a needed win at home. In such a tight wild card race, surely the little things, like getting on base by taking one for the team, will be the key for which ever team comes out on top.
Brandon Claussen pitches today for the visitors. 6 of his 8 career hit batters have been recorded this season, but has never plunked Biggio.
James Baldwin plunked Biggio on August 31, 1997 and Jake Peavy got him on August 31, 2003.

All-Plunk team

This week, I'm naming the long awaited official Plunk Biggio all time All-Plunk team starting today with the outfield.

Outfield: Minnie Minoso, Frank Robinson, Curtis Welch
Backups: Fred Clarke, Chet Lemon

These five have racked up 867 HBPs between them with 776 of them coming in seasons when the they played more than 75% of there games in the outfield.

Minnie Minoso was hit 192 times in his career with 164 of those coming in seasons when he played three quarters of his games in the outfield. He led the American League in plunks 10 different times. No other player has lead his league as many times.

Frank Robinson tallied 198 plunks in his career with 152 coming in season when he played outfield in 75% of his games. He led the league in plunks 7 different times with a career high of 20 coming in his rookie year in 1956. Only 3 other players have been plunked more as a rookie (Tommie Tucker, Charlie Babb, and David Eckstein).

Curtis Welch got plunked 173 times in his career from 1884 to 1893. 153 of those came in season when he got played outfield 75% of the time. He led the defunct American Association in plunks in 1888, 1890 and 1891.

Fred Clarke led the league in plunks just once, in 1902, but he most likely tallied all of his 153 plunks in the outfield since he only played 7 games in the infield.

Finally, rounding out the All-Plunk outfield is Chet Lemon. Lemon led the American League in plunks 4 times, and was hit 151 times - 118 playing center field and 33 playing right.

visiting reds

The Cincinnati Reds are visiting this week, sending Ramon Ortiz to the mound tonight. Ortiz has never plunked Biggio but the Reds are the first team ever to plunk Biggio and are second in the National League this year in hit batters with 61.
Barry Jones hit Biggio with a pitch on August 30, 1991 and Jason Bere did so on August 30, 1997.

And, while you don't really need a crazy baseball blog to remind you of things like this, here it is anyway: www.redcross.org

plunkers vs plunk nots

So far this year, the top 10 teams in hit batters have a combined ERA of 4.75 while the bottom 10 have a combined 4.01 ERA. This is the biggest difference in earned run average between the top and bottom third of teams in plunks since 1937. In 1990, the top third of teams in hit batters posted a better ERA than the bottom third by 2 hundredths of a run, so it is possible for teams that hit a lot of batters to still be effective pitching staffs, but even that year the middle third was better. The ERA of the top third in plunks hasn't been below both other thirds since 1967.
Here are the combined ERAs for the top, middle, and bottom third of teams in the majors for each year back to 1980:

Year	Top Third	Middle Third	Bottom Third	Total MLB ERA
2005	4.75	4.10	4.01	4.30
2004	4.52	4.69	4.18	4.46
2003	4.33	4.79	4.08	4.40
2002	4.64	4.27	3.92	4.28
2001	4.56	4.50	4.20	4.42
2000	4.92	4.61	4.78	4.77
1999	5.06	4.65	4.41	4.71
1998	4.57	4.38	4.35	4.43
1997	4.63	4.24	4.27	4.39
1996	4.90	4.55	4.37	4.61
1995	4.53	4.56	4.29	4.45
1994	4.56	4.71	4.30	4.51
1993	4.24	4.35	4.02	4.19
1992	3.76	3.80	3.68	3.75
1991	4.05	3.86	3.82	3.91
1990	3.88	3.80	3.90	3.86
1989	4.09	3.46	3.55	3.71
1988	4.13	3.62	3.44	3.73
1987	4.47	4.20	4.20	4.29
1986	4.23	3.78	3.88	3.97
1985	4.29	3.71	3.66	3.89
1984	4.07	3.83	3.54	3.81
1983	4.07	3.91	3.64	3.87
1982	3.90	3.83	3.85	3.86
1981	3.61	3.74	3.41	3.58
1980	4.06	3.79	3.67	3.84

the lost plunk

Well, I can't say it didn't occur to me that this might happen, but I'm still going to commission a team of genealogists to establish whether or not Doug Eddings and Tommie Tucker are related. Eddings has, by the way, award first base to Biggio on plunks 3 times in his career. Then again, maybe there's some kind of espn.com article on being fundamentally sound jinx like the SI cover curse. I still think if pitchers are going to continue to use inside pitches as intimidation, batters should get to stand there and not be intimidated, and if pitchers are going to continue to suck so much that they occasionally throw a fastball off a batters arm, batters should continue to get to protect their career with a protective arm guard.
And, while people in the game are doing things I've actively discouraged here, the Astros continued their quest to move Roger Clemens to dead last in the league in run support, but somehow he actually moved up to 93rd. He's only 7th from last though, so a few pitchers dropped off the bottom of the list.
The Astros get a day off today, and Biggio has never been hit on August 29th.

Dodgey weekend

Craig Biggio homered off Derek Lowe but did not get hit by a pitch in last night's pitchers duel. Today he'll face Edwin Jackson. Danny Jackson, and Michael Jackson have plunked Biggio, but never Edwin Jackson. And no Tito.
Paul Byrd hit Craig Biggio with a pitch on August 27, 1997.

Sunday the Astros are scheduled to face Jeff Weaver. Weaver has never plunked Biggio, but he is tied for the National League lead in hit batsmen this season with 13. Mark Gardner hit Biggio with a pitch on August 28, 1992 and Lance Davis plunked Biggio on August 28, 2001.

odd stats

For those of you who haven't thought about things like prime, even, and odd numbers since 7th grade and were hoping to keep it that way, skip down to the second section below (beginning "In other notes").

Craig Biggio has been hit by a pitch 271 times. 271 is a prime number, and there are 57 other primes less than 271. On average, it has taken Craig Biggio 9.22 games to record the next hit-by-pitch after a prime number plunk, while the plunks following non-prime numbers have come after only 9.14 games. This could easily lead one to believe that having been hit by a pitch a prime number of times has absolutely nothing to do with when you'll get hit by a pitch, and I would be inclined to agree.
On the other hand, the next plunk has come 7.71 games after an odd numbered plunk, but when Biggio has an even numbered total, it takes an average of 10.58 games to find another pitcher to hit him.

In other notes related to tonight's opposing pitcher, the last pitcher to get the win in the final game of a World Series and hit Craig Biggio with a pitch in his career was Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser who won the clinching game 5 of the 1988 World Series, and plunked Biggio on April 1, 1998, and two more times on May 7, 2000. The only other pitcher to accomplish both feats is Jose Rijo, winner of game 4 of the 1990 World Series, and plunker of Craig Biggio on August 2, 1992. Derek Lowe could become the first pitcher to get the win in the final game of the World Series and plunk Biggio in the following season.
Their are 5 pitchers who have been charged with a loss in the final game of the World Series and also hit Craig Biggio: Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Calvin Schiraldi. Not at all surprisingly, all five of them lost to over paid teams from New York, but that's a topic for a whole other web site.

stop Dodging

The Astros take on the Dodgers tonight at Dodger Stadium - rumored to be the only thing in America a french exchange student would want to see when she's not learning Ricky Smith's international language of love. Derek Lowe will be pitching for the Dodgers. In case you've heard this less than 999,999 times this year, Derek Lowe was the winning pitcher in the clinching game of all 3 playoff series' for the Red Sox last year. Plunking Craig Biggio might just be the next most important thing not yet checked off on his career to-do list. Lowe has hit 54 of te 5341 batters he has faced in his career, but he's only hit 4 out of 718 batters this season.
Craig Biggio has never been hit by a pitch on August 26th.

In other news, I'm not saying you should follow ALL of this guy's advice, but...

LA Dodger of Anaheim?

The Astros are in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers starting tomorrow, but the other team that calls LA home (sort of) has this season's best dodger so far. Angels leadoff man Chone Figgins has emerged as a threat to Sandy Alomar's single season record for plate appearances without getting hit by a pitch.
In 1971, Alomar, also with the Angels, collected 739 plate appearance without getting hit by a pitch. This season, Chone Figgins is up to 558. With 36 games left on the schedule for the Angels, Figgins will need to average 5.028 plate appearance per game and play every game the rest of the way. If he gets to the plate 5 times every game, and has just two 6 plate appearance games in there, he'll break the record. Unless, of course, someone hits him between now and then.
Craig Biggio's longest streak of plate appearances without getting hit by a pitch was 480, from the 6th inning on September 1, 1989 to the 2nd inning on July 22, 1990. Figgins has nearly 1000 more consecutive unplunked plate appearance. In fact, Figgins has never been hit in his 1478 major league plate appearances. He is 3rd in plate appearances among active players who have never been hit by a pitch, behind Juan Castro (1,976) and Coco Crisp (1,622). They all have a long way to go to catch all time pitch dodger Mark Lemke who made it through his entire career of 3,664 plate appearance and was never hit by a pitch.
Personally, I think these guys should take one for the team once in a while.
The Dodgers' shortstop Cesar Izturis went 728 plate appearance last year without getting hit, and had made it up to 1,958 career plate appearances before realizing the value of getting on base via the plunk on April 10th this year. He has been hit 3 times since.

still no 272

Chad Qualls contributed by hitting two Padres batters last night, but Craig Biggio did not get hit by a pitch. Despite Qualls' efforts, the Astros are still taking more plunks than they're dishing out this year by a margin of 60-45. Last year, Astros batters took only 61 HBPs while their pitchers hit 68 batters, making that the first time the Astros handed out more plunks than they took since 1993. 1990 is the only other year during Craig Biggio's career when the Astros batters didn't take more for the team than the pitching staff gave up.

The Astros are off today, and Craig Biggio has never been hit by a pitch on August 25th.

Shut-out stats

The Astros have been shut out 15 times this season, 3 short of the Craig Biggio era record of 18 set in 1992. Craig Biggio has played in 12 of this years blankings, and was hit by a pitch in 2 of them. He's been hit by a pitch in 3 shut-outs during the same season only once in his career, in 1997. Overall, he's been hit 12 times during shut-outs, 8 of which have been complete game shut-outs by the opposing pitcher (the other 4 being combined shut-outs). The Astros have been shut out 130 times in games which Craig Biggio played.
Pitchers who have hit Biggio while pitching a complete game shut-out:
Joey Hamilton, Shawn Estes, Pedro Martinez, Francisco Cordova, Kerry Wood (the 20 strikeout game), Mark Brownson, Carlos Zambrano, Cory Lidle.
Contradictions aside, Biggio has never been hit during a no hitter.

The Astros average 4.53 runs per game when Biggio plays and does not get hit by a pitch, but 5.40 runs when he gets hit. When he gets hit twice, they average 8.35 runs, and 5.14 when he gets hit just once.

shut out again

Last week I mentioned that Roger Clemens was 90th out of 102 starters in run support per 9 innings, and I thought I clearly stated that I was not encouraging any efforts to get him to the very bottom of this category. Despite my objections, the Astros went and got shut out again and move Clemens to 94th on the list. The Astros have now scored 3.73 runs per 9 innings while Clemens has been the pitcher of record.
Meanwhile, Craig Biggio did not get hit by a pitch. Chan Ho Park pitches for the Padres today, as part of the Rangers' starters relocation program. Park hit Biggio twice on September 12, 1997. He also plunked Biggio on April 3, 1996.
Biggio was hit on August 24 in 1997 by Jamey Wright and in 1998 by Matt Karchner.

Biggio vs the bottom 5

The Padres have it 37 batters this season - 4th fewest in the National League, behind Atlanta, San Francisco, and the Cubs. Milwaukee is currently 5th from the bottom. Craig Biggio has been hit at least twice by the bottom 5 teams (including ties) in National League plunks every year since 1992. The most was in 1997 when the lowest 5 teams in plunks hit Biggio 10 times.

Team	Total HBP	Hit Biggio											Team	Total HBP	Hit Biggio
1989													1990
Braves	16	0											Padres	19	1
Padres	21	0											Giants	21	0
Giants	24	1											Braves	26	0
Astros	25	0											Mets	27	0
Cubs	25	0											Cubs	28	0
1991													1992
Padres	13	0											Padres	21	0
Mets	25	1											Braves	26	1
Reds	28	0											Phillies	27	0
Cubs	28	0											Reds	28	2
Dodgers	28	0											Dodgers	28	0
Braves	28	0
1993													1994
Braves	22	1											Cubs	19	0
Marlins	32	0											Mets	21	0
Padres	34	1											Braves	22	1
Phillies	37	1											Padres	25	1
Dodgers	37	0											Reds	27	1
1995													1996
Reds	31	2											Braves	19	0
Braves	32	0											Cardinals	35	2
Cubs	34	1											Phillies	35	2
Mets	35	0											Dodgers	39	1
Dodgers	37	1											Reds	42	1
1997													1998
Braves	31	1											Pirates	31	0
Giants	39	2											Braves	35	0
Cubs	43	2											Diamondbacks	41	2
Dodgers	45	2											Astros	42	0
Mets	47	3											Cubs	48	2
1999													2000
Braves	26	1											Braves	37	0
Cubs	27	0											Giants	41	0
Padres	35	1											Diamondbacks	42	1
Astros	40	0											Phillies	42	1
Reds	45	2											Reds	43	1
													Marlins	43	0
2001													2002
Braves	33	0											Giants	36	0
Giants	33	0											Braves	42	1
Mets	43	0											Expos	46	1
Reds	48	1											Dodgers	46	0
Cubs	50	2											Diamondbacks	54	0
2003													2004
Dodgers	40	1											Braves	27	1
Marlins	40	0											Giants	47	0
Braves	42	0											Padres	48	1
Giants	43	0											Mets	49	0
Mets	45	3											Brewers	51	1
													Marlins	51	1

Padres, game 2, looking for 272

Today the Astros will face Padres' starter Jake Peavy. Peavy has hit 24 batters in his career including Craig Biggio on August 31, 2003. Biggio was hit once before on August 23, back in 1997 by Pedro Astacio. Astacio starts Friday for the Padres against Colorado.

271!

Chris Hammond hit Craig Biggio, last night, in the 9th inning on an 0-1 pitch with 2 outs, and came around to score on Lance Berkman's double. Chris Hammond has now hit Biggio twice, having done so on May 12, 1998 for the Marlins. Only Salomon Torres (9/21/93, 5/12/03) and Steve Reed (8/1/94, 4/3/03) have gone longer between plunkings of Biggio.

Astros' Starters

Tonight's starter for the Astros, Roy Oswalt, has started 18 games in which Craig Biggio has been hit by a pitch, and Biggio has been hit 20 times in those 18 games. That puts Oswalt in 4th place in both of those categories. Shane Reynolds started 30 games for the Astros in which Biggio got plunked. In those 30 games, Biggio got hit 33 times - the same number of batters Reynolds hit in his entire career with the Astros.

Astros' Starter	Plunks	Games
Shane Reynolds	33	30
Mike Hampton	26	23
Darryl Kile	21	20
Roy Oswalt	20	18
Doug Drabek	17	16
Chris Holt	14	13
Wade Miller	14	13
Jose Lima	12	11
Scott Elarton	11	8
Pete Harnisch	7	7
Jeriome Robertson	7	7
Roger Clemens	7	6
Greg Swindell	6	6
Sean Bergman	5	5
Tim Redding	5	5
Dave Mlicki	4	4
Andy Pettitte	4	4
Kirk Saarloos	4	4
Mike Scott	4	4
Donne Wall	4	4
Ramon Garcia	4	3
Jim Deshaies	3	3
Octavio Dotel	3	3
Carlos Hernandez	3	3
Mark Portugal	3	3
Brian Williams	3	3
Ron Villone	3	2
Doug Brocail	2	2
Danny Darwin	2	2
Brandon Duckworth	2	2
Wandy Rodriguez	2	2
Rodrigo Rosario	2	1
Brandon Backe	1	1
Kent Bottenfield	1	1
Nelson Cruz	1	1
Bob Forsch	1	1
Bill Gullickson	1	1
John Halama	1	1
Jonathan Johnson	1	1
Jimmy Jones	1	1
Scott Linebrink	1	1
Tony McKnight	1	1
Peter Munro	1	1
Rick Rhoden	1	1
Pete Schourek	1	1

back on the road

Once again, Craig Biggio did not get hit by a pitch all weekend. But, he did score yesterday on a Jason Lane plunk with the bases loaded, so HBPs are still a part of his offensive production.
The Astros go back on the road today visiting San Diego, where they'll face Woody Williams today. Williams has hit 51 batters in his carrer and just threw his 30,000th pitch in his last outing. He has only hit one batter this season, and he has never hit Craig Biggio. Also, Biggio has never been hit on August 22nd.

Freddy Van Dusen signing day

Unfortunately, getting hit by a throw on the way to first base isn't a stat that has ever been tracked, so Craig Biggio will have to continue his hunt for the 271 pitch with his name on it this weekend. Today Ben Sheets pitches for the Brewers. He hit Biggio with a pitch June 29, 2001. The Brewers' Scott Karl hit Biggio on August 20, 1998, and the Cubs' Kyle Farnsworth hit him on August 20, 2002.

Today is also the 50th anniversary of Fred Van Dusen's signing with the Phillies. Hopefully the last 50 years have been kinder to Freddy than the few weeks following August 20, 1955, but he can still say he made it to the show once upon a time - I'm sure a good number of people who never had one at all would trade their major league career for his.

Tomorrow Victor Santos goes for the Brewers. He has never hit Craig Biggio with a pitch, and Biggio has never been hit on August 21.

SI Cover jinx

Finally, a stat about Sports Illustrated Covers where Michael Jordan doesn't hold the record. Craig Biggio has been hit by a pitch 15 times while Tiger Woods was on the cover of SI, but only 12 times when Jordan was on it.

Tiger Woods	15
Michael Jordan	12
Kobe Bryant	12
Shaquille O'Neal	11
Tim Duncan	10
Karl Malone	7
Kevin Garnett	6
Lance Armstrong	6
Ben Wallace	6
Randy Johnson	6

No pitcher has ever been on the cover of SI and hit Craig Biggio in the same week, and Craig Biggio has never been on the cover.

Teeth removed, but not by a pitch

For those of you who have speculated that Craig Biggio must somehow enjoy pain to be hit by a pitch 270 times, you'll be interested to note that he missed last nights game having had his wisdom teeth removed earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the Astros continued their combined efforts to move Roger Clemens to dead last among starting pitchers in run support. I'm not encouraging this, but Clemens is 90th and has a long way to go to catch 1O2nd place Kip Wells. Clemens run support is down to 3.91, but Kip Wells is only getting 2.69 runs of support per 9 innings of work. On the other hand, David Wells is enjoying 8.06 runs of support per 9 innings (but he really needs it).
Hopefully Biggio will be back in the line up tonight, getting on base by any means necessary, willing to sacrifice more teeth if need be. Doug Davis, tonight's starter for the Brewers, has never hit Craig Biggio with a pitch, but he has hit 3 batters this year and 20 in his career.
Biggio has never been plunked on August 19th.

Most plunked day of the week (Revisited)

In April, I posted Craig Biggio's plunk totals by day of the week, but since commenter Xavier McDaniel asked about it, it seems like a good time for an update and a more in depth look. If there is one thing this site, and the whole issue of Craig Biggio getting hit by pitches needs, it's a more in depth look.
Here are the plunks by day of the week again, updated through yesterday, and sorted by plunks per plate appearance.

Day	Plunks	Plate Appearances	HBP/PA
Sat	50	1806	0.02769
Sun	42	1582	0.02655
Mon	46	1784	0.02578
Wed	43	1719	0.02501
Tues	29	1206	0.02405
Thurs	24	1224	0.01961
Fri	36	1842	0.01954

Thursday has been the least plunked in total, but it's only second to last in plate appearances and plunks per plate appearance for Biggio. I think this chart leads to an obvious assumption: the Astros get their ice delivered on Saturday mornings, so as the week's supply dwindles, Biggio is more and more inclined to get out of the way of pitches which might otherwise hit him. The Tuesday/Wednesday numbers are probably just a random anomaly. That makes perfect sense, right?
However, the overall trend hasn't held up this year. Maybe they got an ice machine. This year Biggio has been plunked twice on Thursday, and over half his plunks have been on Tuesday and Wednesday. And, none of his 2005 HBPs have come on a Saturday.

	Plunks (per plate appearance)
Year	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
1988	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
1989	1 (0.012)	0 (0)	2 (0.024)	0 (0)	0 (0)	2 (0.024)	1 (0.012)
1990	2 (0.02)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	1 (0.01)
1991	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	2 (0.019)	0 (0)
1992	2 (0.019)	1 (0.012)	1 (0.008)	0 (0)	1 (0.016)	2 (0.017)	0 (0)
1993	0 (0)	0 (0)	4 (0.034)	1 (0.01)	0 (0)	2 (0.017)	3 (0.025)
1994	1 (0.013)	2 (0.031)	1 (0.014)	2 (0.027)	1 (0.018)	0 (0)	1 (0.012)
1995	2 (0.019)	3 (0.045)	4 (0.04)	3 (0.034)	3 (0.037)	4 (0.034)	3 (0.026)
1996	5 (0.043)	3 (0.035)	5 (0.042)	6 (0.054)	0 (0)	4 (0.034)	4 (0.036)
1997	6 (0.052)	5 (0.057)	5 (0.045)	4 (0.034)	3 (0.037)	5 (0.043)	6 (0.053)
1998	2 (0.016)	4 (0.046)	4 (0.037)	4 (0.036)	1 (0.014)	3 (0.025)	5 (0.042)
1999	4 (0.035)	1 (0.013)	2 (0.017)	1 (0.009)	1 (0.013)	1 (0.007)	1 (0.009)
2000	2 (0.027)	4 (0.07)	3 (0.036)	2 (0.032)	2 (0.047)	1 (0.013)	2 (0.029)
2001	6 (0.065)	2 (0.029)	3 (0.027)	4 (0.034)	2 (0.023)	3 (0.026)	8 (0.064)
2002	0 (0)	1 (0.016)	2 (0.017)	3 (0.027)	2 (0.025)	3 (0.026)	6 (0.063)
2003	4 (0.046)	1 (0.018)	3 (0.026)	6 (0.052)	5 (0.051)	1 (0.008)	7 (0.056)
2004	4 (0.045)	1 (0.014)	3 (0.027)	2 (0.017)	1 (0.012)	2 (0.017)	2 (0.018)
2005	1 (0.019)	1 (0.017)	4 (0.051)	5 (0.064)	2 (0.04)	1 (0.013)	0 (0)

Visiting Brew

Carlos Zambrano pitched his tenth straight game without giving up more than 3 earned runs last night, and hasn't hit anyone in sixteen games. But, the Cubs are leaving and Tomo Ohka and the Brewers are coming into town for 4 games starting tonight. Ohka has never hit Biggio with a pitch, but has hit 3 batters this year, most recently plunking Jose Guillen on July 17.
Biggio was hit by a pitch by Jimmy Anderson on August 18, 2001, and hit by Jaime Navarro on August 18, 1996.

further draft notes

Note from yesterday: the data used for these draft analysis bits include the sandwich round with the first round of the draft. Sandwich round picks who have hit Biggio with a pitch include Rocky Biddle, Stan Spencer, Mark Petkovsek, Jamey Wright, Calvin Schiraldi and Pete Harnish. But, the rules aren't entirely clear to me so I may have added or removed some from this list. Contrary to popular belief, Rich Garces, David Wells, Bartolo Colon and Jeff Juden were NOT drafted in the sandwich round.

In 1987, Craig Biggio was drafted in the first round, 22nd overall, by the Houston Astros. Since then he has been hit by a pitch 270 times. The 21 players drafted ahead of Biggio in '87 have a total of 123 HBPs led by Ken Griffey Jr. with 74. The entire first round of the '87 draft not named Craig Biggio has 189.
Through 2004, every player drafted 46th or later since 1987 had a combined total of only 214 HBPs. The 31 players who have made the bigs after being drafted in the 20th round have been hit 307 times, making the 20th the lowest draft round to have a combined total of more plunks than Biggio (since 1987).
Among 1st round picks, the 22nd slot where Biggio was draft is only second in total plunks in the Craig Biggio era, trailing the 23rd picks. The 23rd picks include 108 time plunk victim Mo Vaughn and Jason Kendall, who is the second most plunked active player with 190.
The second most plunked 22nd pick ever drafted was Chet Lemon, with a not at all shabby 151 plunks.

1987 draft first round (players who had at least one plate appearance in the majors):

Pick# Players Team Plunks 1 Ken Griffey Jr. SEA 74 3 Willie Banks* MIN 2 4 Mike Harkey CHN 1 5 Jack McDowell CHA 0 6 Derek Lilliquist ATL 0 9 Kevin Appier KCA 1 11 Lee Tinsley OAK 4 12 Delino DeShields MON 20 13 Bill Spiers MIL 18 14 Cris Carpenter SLN 0 16 Mike Remlinger SFN 0 17 Alex Sanchez TOR 0 18 Jack Armstrong CIN 2 19 Brian Bohanon* TEX 0 21 Steve Pegues DET 1 22 Craig Biggio HOU 270 23 Bill Haselman TEX 11 24 Chris Donnels NYN 1 25 John Orton CAL 5 26 Reggie Harris* BOS 0 27 Pete Harnisch* BAL 1 29 Mark Petkovsek* TEX 1 30 Travis Fryman DET 41 31 David Holdridge CAL 0 32 Bob Zupcic BOS 6

* Pitcher who plunked Biggio.

Cubs finale

Greg Maddux got through 7 innings on only 70 pitches last night, and his relievers Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster got the final 6 outs on 19 pitches, so there were very few opportunities for Craig Biggio to get hit by a pitch.
Carlos Zambrano takes the hill for the Cubs tonight, and he'll bring with him his short history of plunking Biggio. He hit Biggio on May 31 and August 12, 2003.
August 17th has it's own history of Craig Biggio getting hit by pitches. He was hit one year ago today by Randy Wolf of the Phillies, and in 1997 Scott Ruffcorn and Wayne Gomes both hit Biggio on August 17 - also for the Phillies. It will be tough for the Phillies to hit Biggio with a pitch today, but I wouldn't rule it out.

Draft Analysis

Craig Biggio has been plunked 65 times by 46 pitchers who were drafted in the first round of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. 45 pitchers who were never drafted at all and came to the majors as undrafted free agents have hit him 60 times. This is an important lesson for young pitchers who hope someday to go to the major leagues and hit Craig Biggio with a pitch - being a high draft pick is no guarantee for success, and not being drafted at all doesn't me you won't someday reach your goal.
Biggio has been hit by 7 times by 4 different pitchers picked with the first selection in the draft. Danny Jackson was the number 1 pick in 1982 by Kansas City, but he recorded both of his plunks of Biggio in 1995 with St. Louis. Andy Benes also pitched for the Cardinals when he hit Biggio 3 times between 1996 and 2001 after being the number 1 pick in 1988 by San Diego. Paul Wilson was the first player picked in 1994, and hit Biggio with the Mets just 2 years later in 1996. Kris Benson was drafted #1 in 1996 by the Pirates and hit Biggio in 2004.
The lowest drafted player ever to plunk Biggio was Kyle Farnsworth, drafted by the Cubs in the 47th round in 1994. It took him 8 years to reach the majors and plunk Biggio for the Cubs in 2002. (Several other plunkers including Kip Wells, Jason Jennings, Rick Helling and Alan Benes were drafted in later rounds but did not sign, re-enter the draft and were selected higher in later years).
In all, 57 pitchers plunked Biggio for the same team that drafted them for a total of 76 HBPs. Colorado and Pittsburgh have been the most effective at drafting pitchers to plunk Biggio for them, each drafting 8, but Colorado's draftees have racked up 14 plunks to the Pirates 10.

Pitchers who have plunked Biggio by draft round:

Round	Pitchers	Plunks
1	46	65
undrafted	45	60
2	20	24
3	17	22
4	11	15
8	9	14
6	6	9
7	5	5
9	4	7
17	4	6
5	3	4
14	3	4
12	3	3
13	3	3
11	2	3
18	2	3
21	2	3
16	2	2
25	2	2
30	2	2
10	1	1
15	1	1
19	1	1
20	1	1
22	1	1
23	1	1
24	1	1
26	1	1
31	1	1
35	1	1
36	1	1
40	1	1
41	1	1
47	1	1

Pitchers who plunked Biggio with the team that drafted them by draft round:

Round	Pitchers	Plunks
1	13	21
3	6	9
2	6	6
6	3	5
9	3	5
14	3	4
8	2	3
17	2	3
12	2	2
5	1	2
4	1	1
7	1	1
13	1	1
15	1	1
16	1	1
18	1	1
20	1	1
21	1	1
24	1	1
25	1	1
30	1	1
35	1	1
36	1	1
40	1	1
41	1	1
47	1	1

Pitchers who plunked Biggio with the team that drafted them by team:

Team	Pitchers	Plunks
PIT	8	10
COL	8	14
SLN	6	6
SDN	4	6
MIL	4	5
FLO	4	4
CHN	4	9
PHI	3	3
CIN	3	3
SFN	2	2
NYN	2	2
MON	2	3
LAN	2	3
CHA	2	2
MIN	1	1
KCA	1	2
ARI	1	1

Pitchers who plunked Biggio (all) by team that drafted them:

Team	Pitchers	Plunks
PIT	11	13
SLN	11	13
COL	10	17
CHA	10	10
SDN	8	14
KCA	7	10
CHN	6	12
BAL	6	10
LAN	6	8
MIL	6	8
TEX	6	7
PHI	6	6
MON	5	10
NYA	5	7
NYN	5	6
CLE	5	6
CIN	5	5
CAL	4	5
MIN	4	5
TOR	4	5
SEA	4	5
SFN	4	5
FLO	4	4
DET	3	4
HOU	3	3
ATL	3	3
BOS	2	2
ANA	2	2
ARI	2	2
OAK	2	2
TBA	1	1

Just another Maddux Wednesday

The Astros set a Craig Biggio era team record last night for the most runs scored after being shutout in 2 consecutive games, with 12 runs. Tonight Greg Maddux pitches for the Cubs. He hit Biggio on July 31, 1993 and June 12, 1994 and won the Cy Young award in both of those years. Maddux stands as the only pitcher to win the Cy Young award twice in years when he also hit Craig Biggio with a pitch. He is also the only 3000 strikeout pitcher who has hit Biggio, as well as the only 300 win pitcher to have done so. He is 73 wins ahead of the second most winning member of the Biggio plunker club, Frank Tanana. Tanana won 240 games.
Biggio has been hit once on August 16, by Seth Etherton in 2003.

Why California?

Why California? Why do your native born pitchers hit so many batters? Is it simply because there are so many of them, or are you going to blame it on the Santa Anna winds?
Californians have hit Craig Biggio more times (41) than pitchers from Idaho have hit
anybody (39). Montana and Delaware born pitchers have combined for only 41 hit batters during Biggio's career. Californians have hit more batters during the past 17 seasons than 44 others states have hit in major league history.
Pitchers from England have hit 47 batters, but only got Biggio once. The Germans have hit 113 batters while the French have only hit 17. Neither country has produced a plunker of Biggio. And, not to be forgotten, Poland has hit 63 batters, but never hit Craig Biggio.

State, Province or Country	Biggio Plunks	Pitchers	Totals 1988-2004		Totals All time
			Hit batters	Pitchers	Hit batters	Pitchers
California	41	31	3664	361	8858	775
Dominican Republic	25	18	1656	157	1961	179
Texas	22	14	1572	151	3953	360
Florida	12	12	980	112	1584	155
New York	12	8	891	83	4612	501
Illinois	10	5	864	102	4637	433
Georgia	9	6	571	37	1570	118
Massachusetts	9	9	412	37	2310	286
Virginia	8	5	322	36	1216	137
Pennsylvania	7	6	821	69	5707	588
New Jersey	7	4	480	42	1666	191
Alabama	7	5	289	26	1173	103
Kentucky	7	5	275	33	1506	138
Ohio	6	5	914	87	5562	472
Louisiana	6	5	561	44	1235	107
Mexico	6	5	393	36	593	58
Oklahoma	6	3	309	26	1094	115
Indiana	6	4	292	35	1987	175
Venezuela	5	4	493	52	569	65
South Korea	5	3	189	9	189	9
North Carolina	4	4	255	28	2160	184
Alaska	4	2	94	4	94	4
Michigan	3	3	608	56	2788	213
Puerto Rico	3	2	479	36	763	57
Maryland	3	2	354	23	1448	129
Hawaii	3	3	199	11	428	18
Japan	3	2	192	20	195	21
Kansas	3	3	107	19	1371	110
South Carolina	3	3	89	16	708	70
Washington	2	2	262	29	826	83
Wisconsin	2	2	234	18	1211	109
Mississippi	2	2	162	23	561	69
Arizona	2	1	105	13	494	69
New Hampshire	2	2	101	7	379	25
Missouri	1	1	454	28	2677	243
Iowa	1	1	317	21	1592	117
Cuba	1	1	270	17	682	69
Nevada	1	1	122	6	166	10
Nicaragua	1	1	116	3	181	6
British Columbia	1	1	103	11	117	17
West Virginia	1	1	58	7	680	53
North Dakota	1	1	48	2	71	8
Idaho	1	1	39	3	222	15
Aruba	1	1	38	3	38	3
Rhode Island	1	1	23	4	223	36
Wyoming	1	1	23	2	96	7
South Vietnam	1	1	23	1	23	1
England	1	1	22	3	47	11
Taiwan	1	1	4	1	4	1
Tennessee	0	0	241	34	1330	135
Minnesota	0	0	213	18	852	72
Colorado	0	0	179	20	462	44
Connecticut	0	0	159	14	640	73
Oregon	0	0	130	21	509	56
Arizona	0	0	120	18	346	35
Ontario	0	0	108	12	435	55
Australia	0	0	82	13	82	13
Panama	0	0	81	9	114	16
Utah	0	0	70	8	153	21
South Dakota	0	0	68	8	236	25
Maine	0	0	60	3	360	35
Nebraska	0	0	55	9	671	52
New Brunswick	0	0	45	1	48	3
New Mexico	0	0	43	6	81	9
Holland	0	0	36	1	156	3
Quebec	0	0	32	5	85	13
Washington DC	0	0	22	2	438	40
Montana	0	0	22	3	117	10
Delaware	0	0	19	5	314	27
Alberta	0	0	13	1	14	2
W.Germany	0	0	11	6	17	7
France	0	0	5	1	12	2
Nova Scotia	0	0	4	1	6	5
Philippines	0	0	4	1	4	1
Germany	0	0	3	1	96	15
Spain	0	0	2	1	8	2
Jamaica	0	0	1	1	1	1
Afghanistan	0	0	1	1	1	1
Vermont	0	0	0	0	300	21
Ireland	0	0	0	0	148	16
Switzerland	0	0	0	0	83	1
Poland	0	0	0	0	63	1
Canada (?)	0	0	0	0	60	4
Saskatchewan	0	0	0	0	59	5
Wales	0	0	0	0	40	1
Sweden	0	0	0	0	36	3
Scotland	0	0	0	0	34	5
Manitoba	0	0	0	0	34	1
Virgin Islands	0	0	0	0	30	2
Ukraine	0	0	0	0	14	3
Italy	0	0	0	0	7	3
Norway	0	0	0	0	4	1
Russia	0	0	0	1	3	2
Czechoslovakia	0	0	0	0	2	1
Bahamas	0	0	0	0	1	1

Cubs visit

Craig Biggio took yesterday off, and I guess took the keys to the Astros offense with him, but today's a new day. The Cubs are in visiting and they'll have pitchers who have previously plunked Biggio starting all three games. Today it will be Glendon Rusch who hit Craig Biggio with a pitch last year on June 1. Craig Biggio has never been hit by a pitch on August 15th.

Clemens plunked, 9 short of record

Roger Clemens was hit by a pitch for the first time in his long career last night. He had tallied 149 hit batters before being hit himself, which was 9 short of Nolan Ryan's total. Ryan hit 158 batters and was never plunked himself, making him the all time leader in batters hit by a pitcher who has never been hit. Thanks to Kip Wells, that's one record Clemens won't break.
Al Leiter (114 hit batters) and Chan Ho Park (113 hit batters) are the next closest active players to that particular record of Ryan's. Neither has been hit by a pitch.

maybe they just download music illegally...

The scurvy Pirates plundered no booty last night, and didn't hit Craig Biggio with a single pitch, nor steal any of his rum or Dubloons. It was Rick White who would be walkin' the plank after blowing the Pirates lead in the 8th.
Today's Pirates starter, Kip Wells hit Craig Biggio with a pitch on July 12, 2003 and tomorrow's scheduled starter, Dave Williams did the same on May 17, 2002. Biggio has been hit once on August 13 - in 1992 by Frank Castillo, but he has never been hit on August 14th.

Dukes of... peril. to batters.

Zach Duke is the first Duke to pitch in the majors since Martin Duke pitched 13 innings in 4 games for the American Association's Washington Statesmen in 1891. He went 0-3, but never recorded a hit batter, so his nickname "Duck" my have been a play on his last name rather then a commentary on his pitching. Zach Duke owns the lone major league hit batsmen recorded by a pitcher with the last name Duke.
While Craig Biggio has never been hit by a Duke, nor an Earl, Lord, Prince or King, though Kansas City Royals hit him three times.
He has also been hit by two pitchers who attended Duke University, Chris Capuano and Mike Trombley. Only LSU and Florida State can claim more Biggio plunkers, with 3 each, but Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Wichita State and North East Louisiana State have had 2 each attend their schools as well. In overall plunks, Fresno State leads with 5, but that was entirely the work of Mark Gardner.
There have been only 4 pitchers (through 2004) who attended Duke to pitch in the majors, and their combine career totals come to only 42 hit batters, ranking tied for 130th in that statistic. Pitchers from the University of Texas lead that category by a wide margin with 408 plunks (through 2004).

Harrrr, there be pirates here

The Nationals left town last night after having dropped 3 games behind the Astros in the wild card race, and they didn't even take out their frustrations by hitting Craig Biggio with a pitch. Admirable restraint. But they did hit Willy Tavaras last night.
Tonight's pitcher for the Pirates is rookie Zach Duke, whose name sounds extremely fictitious. He has never faced the Astros, and has hit just one batter in 7 career starts.
Carlos Zambrao plunked Biggio on August 12, 2003, and Al Leiter and Rob Stanifer both hit him on August 12, 1997.

Television

I point this out only to highlight the greatness of Craig Biggio's career longevity, but during his first two season's in the league, and when he first began his ascension to the upper rungs of the all time Hit by Pitch list, The Cosby Show was the number 1 rated show on television. Through 2004, nine other shows have held the title of network televisions top rated show since then (season totals), but Craig Biggio has been hit the most times while E.R. was #1. NBC has had the #1 show for 142 plunks, leading CBS's 95 and ABC's 19. Biggio has been hit 114 times while a drama held the top spot, 73 times when sitcom's were the most watched show, 44 times when gameshows held the title, and 25 times when a news show was number 1. Interestingly, most of these shows aired on Thursday nights, and Thursday's are also the day of the week when Craig Biggio get's hit the least.

Plunks by reigning #1 rated television program through 2004:

Show	Plunks
E.R.	72
Seinfeld	45
CSI	42
Survivor	28
60 Minutes	25
Friends	17
Who Wants to be a Millionaire	16
The Cosby Show	6
Roseanne	3
Cheers	2

That's right, I called Survivor a game show.

another 4 hits, but not hit

Last night Craig Biggio was having so much trouble finding a pitch to get hit by he ended up going 4-5. Livan Hernandez homered for the Feds, but failed to join Omar Daal and Armando Reynoso as the only pitchers to homer and plunk Biggio in the same game.
Ryan Drese pitches for the Nationals in tonight's rubber game of the series. Drese has never plunked Biggio but does have a respectable 7 hit batters this season and 30 in his career.
Bob Wickman hit Craig Biggio with a pitch on August 11, 1998, and Joey Hamilton hit him on August 11, 1994.

youth gone wild part 3 (walks)

The pitchers who have hit Craig Biggio with a pitch 270 have combined to surrender, in those same games, 462 walks or about 0.41 walks per inning pitched. During the span of Biggio's career, the total major league walk rate has been 0.38 per inning pitched, so the pitchers plunking Biggio haven't been walking people too much more often. There have been 81 Biggio plunking appearances where the pitcher hit more batters than he walked, and another 56 where the pitcher's walks and hit batters were equal. That leaves just 121 times, less than half, that a pitcher has walked more batters than he hit in a game where he hit Biggio. (There have been 12 multi-plunk pitching appearances, thus 258 overall pitching appearance with a hit Biggio.)
Younger pitchers have walked the most batters in games when they also hit Craig Biggio with a pitch, led by the 26 year olds with 55.
Walks in games when a pitcher hit Craig Biggio, by pitcher's age:

Age	Walks
26	55
25	44
29	43
24	43
23	40
31	39
28	39
22	32
32	30
30	27
27	24
33	14
21	10
34	6
37	4
39	3
36	3
35	2
38	2
40	1
41	1
20	0

And, younger pitchers in general do tend to surrender more walks.

Walks per inning pitched by pitcher's age, all time:

Age	Walks	Innings	Pitchers	Walks per inning
22	44217	112615.333333333	1508	0.392637
23	67765	176658.666666667	2188	0.383592
21	24544	64241.3333333333	913	0.382059
20	9965	26493.6666666667	474	0.376125
25	104984	282210.666666667	3324	0.372003
24	89368	240260.666666667	2829	0.371961
19	3983	10774.6666666667	182	0.369663
26	114016	312569.666666667	3458	0.364767
27	115958	320845	3402	0.361413
28	105877	299400.666666667	3113	0.353628
29	93906	270813.333333333	2749	0.346755
30	80878	235942.333333333	2354	0.342786
31	68685	201612.333333333	2045	0.340677
18	1364	4034	79	0.338124
32	56696	169280	1712	0.334923
33	46220	139863.333333333	1414	0.330465
44	766	2343.33333333333	29	0.326883
34	36467	111944.333333333	1135	0.325758
43	1300	4025	56	0.32298
35	27494	85737.6666666667	898	0.320673
36	20607	64464	688	0.319665
37	14623	45976.6666666667	498	0.318051
42	2261	7138.33333333333	83	0.31674
38	10411	33378.3333333333	384	0.311907
39	7031	22606.6666666667	249	0.311013
40	5346	17252	179	0.309876
41	3444	11310	131	0.304509

(ages with less than 20 pitchers excluded)

And it might just be getting worse.

Walks per inning pitched by pitcher's age, 1988-2004:

Age	Walks	Innings	Pitchers	Walks per inning
21	1696	3549.33333333333	78	0.477834
22	6040	13696.6666666667	228	0.440982
23	11741	28073.3333333333	425	0.418224
24	18376	45506	652	0.403812
25	22556	55925	888	0.403323
27	26231	67122.6666666667	961	0.390789
26	25573	65548.6666666667	952	0.390135
28	24119	62709.3333333333	840	0.384615
30	19324	51760.6666666667	631	0.373332
29	21920	58910.3333333333	755	0.37209
31	17144	46510.6666666667	557	0.368601
33	12100	33550	391	0.360654
34	9931	27897.6666666667	319	0.355977
32	14300	40308	482	0.354768
35	7402	21502	260	0.344247
36	5661	16761	207	0.337746
39	1833	5487.33333333333	65	0.334041
37	4107	12471.3333333333	146	0.329313
40	1271	3868.66666666667	44	0.328536
38	2990	9217.66666666667	99	0.324375
41	993	3141	34	0.31614

(ages with less than 20 pitchers excluded)