Friday, May 25, 2007

Randy Johnson

As noted yesterday, Randy Johnson was originally scheduled to pitch tonight, but is skipping the start due to tendinitis. Assuming he doesn't decide to jump back into the rotation Saturday or Sunday, and he doesn't get traded by the end of the year, and assuming this will be Craig Biggio's final season, this means that Randy Johnson will never hit Craig Biggio with a pitch. But, it seems like it's worth it to take this opportunity to see how exactly someone can go through a major league career and hit 181 batters. Perhaps by looking at who he's plunked, and when, we can determine if these 181 plunks are the result of wildness, menace, bruise lust, a compulsion to throw things at people, or maybe just the side effect of a long career based on throwing pitches that move fast for batters to react effectively - either to hit the ball or avoid being hit by it. Or failing that, at least consider this post a tribute to those who have been drilled by Johnson and survived.

For the most part, Randy Johnson has hit 181 batters one at a time. He's only had 23 games in which he hit more than 1 batter, and only hit 3 batters in a game once. 133 of his plunks where thrown in 1 plunk games. He's hit 114 American League batters to just 67 National Leaguers. He hit 89 batters for the Mariners, 67 so far for the Diamondbacks, 22 for the Yankees and 3 during his brief stay with the Astros. He's hit 4 American League batters in interleague play with an NL team, but just 1 NL batter while pitching for the American League. He's hit 18 batters in a season twice - in 1992, and 2001, and led the league in plunks twice - in 1992 and 1993.

Johnson has been remarkably consistent spreading his plunks out over the first 4 months of the season - 32 in April, 33 in May, 32 in June and 33 in July - but he drops off in the final two months, plunking only 27 batters in August and 19 in September. He also had 4 October plunks and a March plunk in regular season play, but he never hit a batter in any of his 8 trips to the post season.

Johnson has only plunked back to back batters on 4 occasions and he only hit the same batter twice in a game once - last season on April 26th. He hit Toronto's Reed Johnson twice in that game, but just to show he hadn't learned anything from the experience, Reed Johnson went and got hit a third time in the game, by Tanyon Sturtze. Reed Johnson is tied with Jim Leyritz as Randy Johnson's favorite target - they've both been plunked 4 times by him. From August 6, 2005 to April 29, 2006, Randy Johnson threw 5 plunks, and 4 of them landed on Reed Johnson.

There are 9 batters who have been plunked 3 times by Randy Johnson, but only Darin Erstad is the only one Johnson managed to hit while pitching for 3 different teams.

Here's the complete history of batters plunked by Randy Johnson:
HB#TeamGameBatter (career HBP vs Johnson)
1SEA6/4/1989 VS TEXPete Incaviglia (1)
2SEA8/8/1989 AT CALWally Joyner (1)
3SEA9/10/1989 VS MILCharlie O'Brien (1)
4SEA5/11/1990 VS NYASteve Balboni (1)
5SEA5/22/1990 AT MILGlenn Braggs (1)
6SEA6/17/1990 VS TEXPete Incaviglia (2)
7SEA7/4/1990 AT CLEMitch Webster (1)
8SEA10/3/1990 AT MINJunior Ortiz (1)
9SEA5/12/1991 VS BALTim Hulett (1)
10SEA5/22/1991 AT KCAJim Eisenreich (1)
11SEA5/27/1991 VS KCATerry Shumpert (1)
12SEA6/1/1991 AT TEXBrian Downing (1)
13SEA6/26/1991 AT CHAScott Fletcher (1)
14SEA7/23/1991 AT NYAHensley Meulens (1)
15SEA7/28/1991 AT CLEJerry Browne (1)
16SEA8/9/1991 VS MINChuck Knoblauch (1)
17SEA8/19/1991 VS CALDave Gallagher (1)
18SEA9/13/1991 AT KCATerry Shumpert (2)
19SEA9/18/1991 VS TORCandy Maldonado (1)
20SEA9/18/1991 VS TORRene Gonzales (1)
21SEA5/6/1992 VS TORRoberto Alomar (1)
22SEA5/6/1992 VS TORJoe Carter (1)
23SEA5/12/1992 AT NYARoberto Kelly (1)
24SEA5/12/1992 AT NYAPat Kelly (1)
25SEA5/22/1992 VS CLEMark Lewis (1)
26SEA5/22/1992 VS CLESandy Alomar (1)
27SEA6/10/1992 AT TEXJohn Russell (1)
28SEA6/10/1992 AT TEXAl Newman (1)
29SEA6/27/1992 VS CALRene Gonzales (2)
30SEA6/27/1992 VS CALLee Stevens (1)
31SEA6/27/1992 VS CALRene Gonzales (3)
32SEA7/9/1992 AT NYACharlie Hayes (1)
33SEA7/9/1992 AT NYAJim Leyritz (1)
34SEA7/26/1992 VS NYAJim Leyritz (2)
35SEA7/31/1992 AT CHACraig Grebeck (1)
36SEA8/5/1992 AT MILPat Listach (1)
37SEA9/10/1992 AT OAKCarney Lansford (1)
38SEA10/3/1992 VS CHAShawn Abner (1)
39SEA4/11/1993 VS BALLeo Gomez (1)
40SEA4/11/1993 VS BALChris Hoiles (1)
41SEA4/26/1993 VS CLEAlbert Belle (1)
42SEA5/1/1993 AT NYAMike Gallego (1)
43SEA5/6/1993 AT CLECarlos Baerga (1)
44SEA6/9/1993 AT MILKevin Reimer (1)
45SEA6/14/1993 VS KCAMike Macfarlane (1)
46SEA6/14/1993 VS KCAWally Joyner (2)
47SEA7/5/1993 VS NYAGerald Williams (1)
48SEA7/10/1993 VS CLEFelix Fermin (1)
49SEA7/18/1993 AT BOSMike Greenwell (1)
50SEA8/8/1993 AT TEXJulio Franco (1)
51SEA8/14/1993 VS CALRod Correia (1)
52SEA8/20/1993 AT TORDarnell Coles (1)
53SEA9/16/1993 VS KCARico Rossy (1)
54SEA9/26/1993 VS OAKScott Brosius (1)
55SEA4/15/1994 VS MILMatt Mieske (1)
56SEA4/20/1994 AT NYALuis Polonia (1)
57SEA4/30/1994 VS BALBrady Anderson (1)
58SEA6/15/1994 AT TEXJuan Gonzalez (1)
59SEA7/22/1994 AT BOSJohn Valentin (1)
60SEA8/11/1994 AT OAKScott Brosius (2)
61SEA5/21/1995 AT MINMarty Cordova (1)
62SEA5/31/1995 VS NYAJim Leyritz (3)
63SEA6/28/1995 VS OAKScott Brosius (3)
64SEA7/2/1995 VS TEXMark McLemore (1)
65SEA7/20/1995 AT MILFernando Vina (1)
66SEA8/21/1995 VS BALJeff Manto (1)
67SEA4/16/1996 VS CALJim Edmonds (1)
68SEA8/13/1996 VS KCAMike Sweeney (1)
69SEA4/11/1997 AT BOSMo Vaughn (1)
70SEA4/16/1997 AT DETDamion Easley (1)
71SEA5/13/1997 AT MILChuck Carr (1)
72SEA5/13/1997 AT MILJeff Cirillo (1)
73SEA5/23/1997 AT KCAShane Halter (1)
74SEA6/29/1997 VS ANALuis Alicea (1)
75SEA7/13/1997 VS TEXWill Clark (1)
76SEA7/29/1997 AT BOSMo Vaughn (2)
77SEA7/29/1997 AT BOSShane Mack (1)
78SEA8/15/1997 AT BALCal Ripken (1)
79SEA4/5/1998 VS BOSMike Benjamin (1)
80SEA4/10/1998 AT BOSMo Vaughn (3)
81SEA4/10/1998 AT BOSJim Leyritz (4)
82SEA4/10/1998 AT BOSNomar Garciaparra (1)
83SEA4/28/1998 AT KCAJose Offerman (1)
84SEA5/3/1998 VS DETDamion Easley (2)
85SEA5/14/1998 AT CHARay Durham (1)
86SEA5/19/1998 AT TEXMike Simms (1)
87SEA5/19/1998 AT TEXKevin Elster (1)
88SEA6/3/1998 VS ANATim Salmon (1)
89SEA6/3/1998 VS ANADarin Erstad (1)
90HOU8/2/1998 AT PITLou Collier (1)
91HOU8/22/1998 AT CHNGary Gaetti (1)
92HOU9/18/1998 AT PITAramis Ramirez (1)
93ARI4/5/1999 AT LANEric Young (1)
94ARI5/10/1999 VS MONWilton Guerrero (1)
95ARI5/20/1999 AT COLTodd Helton (1)
96ARI5/30/1999 AT NYNJohn Olerud (1)
97ARI6/9/1999 VS CHNJeff Blauser (1)
98ARI7/20/1999 AT SEAKen Griffey (1)
99ARI7/25/1999 VS LANDevon White (1)
100ARI8/6/1999 AT PHIScott Rolen (1)
101ARI8/16/1999 VS CHNChad Meyers (1)
102ARI6/9/2000 VS ANADarin Erstad (2)
103ARI6/14/2000 AT LANJose Vizcaino (1)
104ARI6/24/2000 VS COLTerry Shumpert (3)
105ARI6/29/2000 VS HOURichard Hidalgo (1)
106ARI8/20/2000 VS CHNMark Grace (1)
107ARI10/1/2000 VS SFNMarvin Benard (1)
108ARI4/3/2001 AT LANJeff Reboulet (1)
109ARI4/8/2001 VS SLNFernando Vina (2)
110ARI4/8/2001 VS SLNJ.D. Drew (1)
111ARI4/13/2001 AT COLJuan Pierre (1)
112ARI5/13/2001 VS PHIScott Rolen (2)
113ARI5/18/2001 AT CHNJulio Zuleta (1)
114ARI6/3/2001 VS SDNKevin Jarvis (1)
115ARI6/19/2001 AT LANPaul Lo Duca (1)
116ARI6/24/2001 AT COLBen Petrick (1)
117ARI7/4/2001 AT HOUMoises Alou (1)
118ARI7/29/2001 VS SFNAndres Galarraga (1)
119ARI7/29/2001 VS SFNShawon Dunston (1)
120ARI8/13/2001 VS PITPat Meares (1)
121ARI8/18/2001 VS CHNCorey Patterson (1)
122ARI9/7/2001 VS SDNBubba Trammell (1)
123ARI9/17/2001 AT COLLarry Walker (1)
124ARI9/22/2001 AT LANShawn Green (1)
125ARI10/2/2001 VS COLLarry Walker (2)
126ARI4/11/2002 AT COLJuan Pierre (2)
127ARI5/21/2002 VS SFNReggie Sanders (1)
128ARI5/21/2002 VS SFNJ.T. Snow (1)
129ARI6/10/2002 AT NYAJason Giambi (1)
130ARI6/15/2002 VS DETRobert Fick (1)
131ARI7/16/2002 AT SFNBenito Santiago (1)
132ARI7/26/2002 VS SDNBrian Buchanan (1)
133ARI8/15/2002 AT CINAdam Dunn (1)
134ARI8/15/2002 AT CINBrandon Larson (1)
135ARI8/20/2002 VS CINRuben Mateo (1)
136ARI8/30/2002 VS SFNKenny Lofton (1)
137ARI9/4/2002 VS LANMike Kinkade (1)
138ARI9/26/2002 VS COLJuan Pierre (3)
139ARI3/31/2003 VS LANDave Roberts (1)
140ARI4/5/2003 AT COLChris Stynes (1)
141ARI4/11/2003 VS MILRichie Sexson (1)
142ARI7/20/2003 AT SDNRondell White (1)
143ARI7/20/2003 AT SDNRamon Vazquez (1)
144ARI7/25/2003 VS LANMike Kinkade (2)
145ARI9/9/2003 VS LANMike Kinkade (3)
146ARI9/24/2003 AT COLLarry Walker (3)
147ARI4/6/2004 VS COLJeromy Burnitz (1)
148ARI4/21/2004 AT MILBrady Clark (1)
149ARI4/26/2004 VS CHNDerrek Lee (1)
150ARI5/23/2004 AT FLODamion Easley (3)
151ARI6/2/2004 VS SFNBarry Bonds (1)
152ARI6/23/2004 AT SDNSean Burroughs (1)
153ARI6/23/2004 AT SDNDavid Wells (1)
154ARI7/15/2004 VS LANAlex Cora (1)
155ARI8/10/2004 AT MONBrad Wilkerson (1)
156ARI9/10/2004 VS SFNBarry Bonds (2)
157NYA4/9/2005 VS BALLuis Matos (1)
158NYA4/19/2005 VS TBAAubrey Huff (1)
159NYA4/19/2005 VS TBAJosh Phelps (1)
160NYA5/15/2005 AT OAKCharles Thomas (1)
161NYA6/1/2005 AT KCADavid DeJesus (1)
162NYA6/6/2005 AT MILGeoff Jenkins (1)
163NYA7/21/2005 AT ANADarin Erstad (3)
164NYA7/26/2005 VS MINShannon Stewart (1)
165NYA7/31/2005 VS ANAAdam Kennedy (1)
166NYA8/6/2005 AT TORReed Johnson (1)
167NYA9/6/2005 VS TBANick Green (1)
168NYA9/16/2005 AT TORReed Johnson (2)
169NYA4/29/2006 VS TORReed Johnson (3)
170NYA4/29/2006 VS TORReed Johnson (4)
171NYA5/4/2006 AT TBAJoey Gathright (1)
172NYA7/14/2006 VS CHAJoe Crede (1)
173NYA7/19/2006 VS SEAJose Lopez (1)
174NYA7/29/2006 VS TBACarl Crawford (1)
175NYA8/14/2006 VS ANAHowie Kendrick (1)
176NYA8/19/2006 AT BOSAlex Cora (2)
177NYA8/31/2006 VS DETBrandon Inge (1)
178NYA9/11/2006 AT BALDavid Newhan (1)
179ARI4/24/2007 VS SDNAdrian Gonzalez (1)
180ARI4/24/2007 VS SDNMike Cameron (1)
181ARI5/9/2007 VS PHIChase Utley (1)

2 Comments:

At 5/25/2007 01:41:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I must have blacked out during the Houston years. That doesn't ring a bell at all. Oh wait, I was in college at that time - that explains it.

 
At 5/25/2007 03:33:00 PM, Blogger pbr said...

By years you mean months - two months at the end of '98. Houston traded Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen and player named later John Halama for two months of Big Unit's service. (On the plus side, Johnson went 10-1 for them helping them win the division, but then he went 0-2 in the division series)

 

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