Thursday, July 06, 2006

Cardinals HBP notes

The Cardinals season HBP leader David Eckstein has not been hit by a pitch since May 31st (his last game against the Astros) but he is still tied for third place in the majors with 10 plunks. After that plunk in May, he looked like he'd have a great chance to eclipse the Cardinals' single season plunk record of 31 set by Steve Evans in 1910, but after going unplunked through June, that seems like a long shot.
Eckstein's next plunk will be his 100th, making him the 15th player with 100 career plunks to play at least part of his career for the Cardinals franchise. The only 2 franchises with more 100 plunk players to pass through their clubhouses are the Yankees and the Giants who have each had 16, including new additions to the 100 plunk club this season on both of those teams (let's just say they might be the two most writen about guys in the league and that their names don't need to be mentioned again here).
However, despite having 14 guys play for them who finished their careers with over 100 HBPs, no one has ever gotten more than 87 for the Cardinals. Steve Evans holds that record for the Cardinals as well as the single season mark. Eckstein's first 76 plunks came while he played for the Angels.
Evans had 111 career plunks, so the other 13 100 plunk players to play for the Cardinals are Tommy Tucker (272), Ron Hunt (243), Dan McGann (230), Minnie Minoso (192), Jake Beckley (183), Andres Galarraga (178), Curt Welch (173), Fernando Vina (157), Larry Walker (138), John McGraw (134), Dummy Hoy (134), Steve Brodie (132), and Orlando Cepeda (102).

Top 10 HBPs in Cardinals history:
Steve Evans - 87
Fernando Vina - 79
Yank Robinson - 57
Stan Musial - 53
Curt Flood - 52
Ray Blades - 47
Dan McGann - 47
Albert Pujols - 47
Ed Konetchy - 45
Solly Hemus - 45

For comparison, Craig Biggio was hit 84 times in the span of three seasons from 1996-98.

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