worthy opponents

The Chicago White Sox finished 3rd in the majors in getting hit by pitches this season with 79 - 7 more than the Astros. They're led in the plunk category by center fielder Aaron Rowand who was hit 21 times in the regular season, second only to Toronto's Shea Hillenbrand.
In the post season so far, the White Sox have been hit 9 times in only 8 games. They've already tied the 2000 Mets for the most hit batters by a team in a single post season, and they still have at least 4 games to play. Only the '98 Astros had a higher plunks per game average (1.25) in the postseason than the White Sox have to date (1.125).
But really, most of that was due to Matt Clement and Tim Wakefield, in the ALDS, who had no idea where any of their pitches were going.

3 of the 9 batters put on base via the plunk for the White Sox scored a run.


In other news, the World Series umpiring crew has been announced, and will not include Doug Eddings. It will be Joe West behind the plate for game 1, and Jeff Nelson, Jerry Layne, Derryl Cousins, Gary Cederstrom, and Angel Hernandez will be working the field. Combined, this crew has called 20 of Craig Biggio's 273 plunks. The last time Joe West called an Astros post season game, the pitching matchup was Nolan Ryan vs Dwight Gooden. It's nice to see Joe focusing on baseball, and spelling his name properly, after his failed music career.