two weekend games, two one time plunkers
The Astros traded runs with the Diamondbacks through 11 innings last night but fell short 8-7. Craig Biggio moved down to the 2nd spot in the batting order, where Chris Burke had been getting hit so effectively recently, but it was Willy Tavares batting in Biggio's vacated lead-off spot who got hit by a pitch last night.
Tonight Juan Cruz will be pitching for the Diamondbacks - he hit Biggio with a pitch the last time he faced the Astros, on April 16, 2006. Craig Biggio has never been hit by a pitch on July 29th.
Tomorrow, Arizona is expected to start Miguel Batista. He plunked Biggio on June 25, 2001. Biggio has been hit twice on July 30th, by Mike Lacoss in 1989 for Biggio's 5th career plunk, and by Hector Carrasco in 1996.
Labels: Diamondbacks
8 Comments:
Here's a slew of questions: league-wide, what is the average number of plunks that occur per game? Is there an upward trend in that number over the years?
And, does it make sense for each pitcher to have an EPA (earned plunk average), which would be the average number of plunks delivered per nine innings pitched? Who leads the league in EPA? I'm guessing that most pitchers have a lower EPA than ERA, but are there any exceptions?
#280...against the D backs!
Another day, another plunking. Never underestimate the predictive powers of wearing them new fangled T shirts. I reckon as more folks slip in to them for each game, the collective and cumulative powers of the fans is projected towards the plate at which Target is standing and the ball inexplicably swerves from its trajectory and beans him. I therefore urge one and all to get one of them new shirts and be wearing it each time Target is in the starting line up. We are making headway here and I am glad to be a part of this (and Mama likes it that it keeps me out of the local ice house and at home under the car port where I tune in on my transistor radio)
Those t-shirts Cletus speaks of (in an unpaid testimonial I might ad) are not available at Target, as you might think, but at they PlunkBiggio store, which you can reach by clicking here. But, there is not yet enough stastical evidence to link the wearing of such t-shirts to the actual plunking of Biggio. Which is to say, it might just be happening to Cletus.
If such a link could be established, I'd go right ahead with the production of "WinAstros" gear as well, hoping that those might have a similar power. I'm not sure of the tent-canvas back-widener Cletus described in an earlier comment is fully necessary for the effect or not.
I'm in the shed working on the numbers to substantiate my theory right now. The T shirts, I postulate, do have an impact on the plunk count. The extra flap of tent canvas has no impact on the count , as that is necessary only for extrordinarily stout individuals who can not make do with none of them deminutive five X shirts and need to do a little adjustment and alteration in the heft department. Until I can generate substantiation and get it published in an academic journal, I suggest one and all go out there and start slipping in to their new HBP shirts and ignore the modest protestations of PBR. He don't know what he's lip flappin' about no how.
I heredy concede the arguement, and withdraw my protest.
I had hoped that some post would mention Luke Scott's cycle. The effect of a team mate's cycle on get-hitting must be quantified. And when the number of cycles gets to 300, should a plunk be added to the cycle to insure rarity?
On the subject of cycles, there's not much corelation between cycles and a teammate getting plunked. On Friday, Willy Taveras joined Biggio as the only Astros to be plunked in a game while another Astro was hitting for the cycle. Biggio got plunked during Bagwell's cycle on July 18, 2001.
There have been 58 games in the majors in which someone hit for the cycle since 1988 (the Craig Biggio era), and someone got hit while their teammate was cycling in only 21 of those. Just 3 of those 21 games had 2 batters get plunked.
So far I haven't found anyone who has hit for the cycle and been hit by a pitch in the same game, but I haven't explored too deeply into the pre-Biggio era yet. It has not happened during the last 18 seasons at least.
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