do pitchers with long names hit more batters?

Recently, reader Tom left a comment asking whether there is any connection between the number of letters in a pitcher's name and the number of times he hits batters. I suspect he's trying to figure out if he should trade for tonight's opposing starter Tom Gorzelanny in his all HBP fantasy league, or if he should stick with Zach Duke.

Among pitchers who have plunked Biggio, there doesn't appear to be a direct relationship between longer or shorter names and more incidents of plunking Biggio, but it does look like the average per pitcher peaks in the middle of the distribution - so people with average length tend to be more likely to throw multiple plunks than those with uncommonly short or long names.

Average number of times plunking Biggio (among those who have), by length of last name:

Characters in Last Name	Average HBP:BGO	Count of pitchers
3	1	2
4	1.36	22
5	1.17	41
6	1.33	45
7	1.44	45
8	1.39	36
9	1.31	16
10	1	4
11	2	1

Average number of times plunking Biggio (among those who have), by length of first name:

Characters in First Name	Average HBP:BGO	Count of pitchers
2	2	2
3	1.13	24
4	1.33	79
5	1.45	66
6	1.18	22
7	1.27	15
8	1	1
9	1.5	2
10	1	1

Average number of times plunking Biggio (among those who have), by combined length of first and last name:

Characters in First + Last Name	Average HBP:BGO	Count of pitchers
7	1	4
8	1	17
9	1.1	30
10	1.04	47
11	1.17	48
12	1.09	55
13	1.18	28
14	1.06	16
15	1.14	7
16	1	4
17	1	1

A similar trend appears in the numbers for plunks per 9 innings for the 2006 season. Pitchers with 6 letter last names threw 0.407 HBPs per 9 innings last year, and the average pitcher had 6.4 letters in his last name in 2006. The average length of first names last season was about 5 letters, and the pitchers with 5 letter first names hit 0.394 batters per 9 innings. If you add those together you'll note that the average combined letters in the names of pitchers last year is a little over 11, and pitchers with 11 letters in there names hit 0.409 per 9 innings in 2006.

Characters in Last Name	HBP per 9	Count of pitchers
3	0.303	11
4	0.383	54
5	0.368	117
6	0.407	166
7	0.370	143
8	0.362	77
9	0.370	42
10	0.411	18
11	0.277	6
12	0.463	1

Characters in First Name	HBP per 9	Count of pitchers
2	1.029	1
3	0.300	55
4	0.384	211
5	0.394	209
6	0.365	78
7	0.395	47
8	0.434	20
9	0.357	11
10	0.253	3

Characters in First + Last Name	HBP per 9	Count of pitchers
6	0	1
7	0.333	3
8	0.340	30
9	0.390	79
10	0.361	118
11	0.409	118
12	0.384	117
13	0.373	77
14	0.375	45
15	0.386	26
16	0.341	15
17	0.380	4
18	0.237	2

Among pitchers who threw in 2006, there doesn't look to be much connection between length of names and career hit batters:

Characters in Last Name	Average Career HBPs	Count of pitchers
3	18.27	11
4	20.69	54
5	15.42	117
6	18.19	166
7	18.16	143
8	17.88	77
9	21.17	42
10	8.11	18
11	13.67	6
12	24	1

Characters in First Name	Average Career HBP	Count of pitchers
2	4	1
3	18.47	55
4	17.66	211
5	19.17	209
6	15.45	78
7	20.66	47
8	7.6	20
9	8.55	11
10	25.33	3

Characters in First + Last Name	Avg Career HBP	Count of pitchers
6	1	1
7	17	3
8	15.27	30
9	19.82	79
10	19.52	118
11	15.80	118
12	18.33	117
13	20.39	77
14	15.51	45
15	11.77	26
16	14.93	15
17	14.5	4
18	3	2

In 2006, the average total length of the names of pitchers who plunked Biggio was slightly longer than the league average for name length, but over his career the names of those who hit him have been shorter than the league average in 10 of the 18 years he's been hit.

Only one pitcher has plunked Biggio once for every letter in the pitcher's last name - Pedro Astacio. Chan Ho Park, Kerry Wood and Steve Reed are one plunk away (although Reed is retired).