more plunk management

Yesterday's discussion of managers may have left you, the reader, with a number of questions like "Yeah, but which managers has Craig Biggio played against and been hit by a pitch against the most?" or "How many different managers has Biggio played against and how many hit him?" or "Who cares about any of this?". Well, some of those questions will be answered today. But not the last one.

Biggio has faced 76 opposing managers in his 2,717 career games, and he's been hit by a pitch against 58 of them. He hasn't played more than 26 games against any manager without getting plunked at least once - Don Zimmer holds that record. 11 different managers have overseen Biggio's plunkings for more than one team, but Davey Johnson is the only manager to watch his team plunk Biggio from three different teams dugouts (Reds, Mets, and Dodgers). Biggio has been hit the most in games against Tony LaRussa's Cardinals - 21 times, but he's also played more games against LaRussa than any other manager (156). Not surprisingly, Biggio has had more hits against LaRussa than any other manager (170).

Here's the full list of managers Biggio has played against, with HBPs and Hits against each one, and the teams they've each managed. The number in parenthesis is the breakdown of plunks by team, where applicable.

Opp. Manager	Games	HBP	Hits	Team (HBP)
Tony LaRussa	156	21	170	Cardinals
Dusty Baker	148	20	165	Giants (17), Cubs (3)
Don Baylor	97	17	128	Rockies (13), Cubs (4)
Jim Leyland	126	13	158	Pirates (8), Marlins (5), Rockies (0), Tigers (0)
Bruce Bochy	97	12	106	Padres
Lloyd McClendon	72	11	77	Pirates
Davey Johnson	69	11	55	Dodgers (5), Reds (4), Mets (2)
Clint Hurdle	27	11	39	Rockies
Jim Riggleman	88	10	96	Cubs (8), Padres (2)
Felipe Alou	113	9	125	Expos (9), Giants (0)
Jack McKeon	80	9	64	Reds (6), Marlins (3), Padres (0)
Bobby Cox	154	8	155	Braves
Terry Francona	33	8	33	Phillies
Buddy Bell	27	8	31	Rockies (8), Tigers, Royals
Buck Showalter	48	7	58	Rangers (4), D-backs (3)
Bobby Valentine	43	6	40	Mets
Davey Lopes	25	6	30	Brewers
Ned Yost	57	5	60	Brewers
Phil Garner	23	5	30	Brewers (5, 1 in AL), Tigers (0)
Jim Fregosi	66	4	75	Phillies
Joe Torre	58	4	82	Cardinals (3), Yankees (1)
Dallas Green	34	4	39	Mets
Dave Miley	31	4	40	Reds
Frank Robinson	30	4	28	Expos (3), Nationals (1)
Bob Melvin	18	4	17	D-backs (4), Mariners (0)
Art Howe	15	4	11	Mets (3), A's (1)
Tom Lasorda	107	3	116	Dodgers
Gene Lamont	37	3	31	Pirates
Rene Lachemann	32	3	40	Marlins
Jim Lefebvre	31	3	31	Cubs (3), Brewers (0)
John Boles	22	3	20	Marlins
Bob Brenly	17	3	13	D-backs
Tony Muser	12	3	14	Royals
Roger Craig	74	2	84	Giants
Lou Piniella	58	2	57	Reds (2), Mariners (0), Devil Rays (0), Cubs (0)
Bob Boone	46	2	54	Reds (2), Royals (0)
Jim Tracy	47	2	54	Dodgers (2), Pirates (0)
Jerry Narron	32	2	38	Rangers (1), Reds (1)
Jeff Torborg	25	2	22	Marlins (2), Expos (0), Mets (0)
Larry Bowa	24	2	29	Phillies
Bill Russell	21	2	21	Dodgers
Willie Randolph	16	2	14	Mets
Mike Jorgensen	9	2	8	Cardinals
Terry Bevington	3	2	4	White Sox
Greg Riddoch	41	1	43	Padres
Buck Rodgers	27	1	19	Expos
Ray Knight	21	1	22	Reds
Charlie Manuel	18	1	18	Indians (1), Phillies (0)
Whitey Herzog	17	1	15	Cardinals
Bud Harrelson	17	1	17	Mets
Tom Kelly	14	1	19	Twins
Jerry Royster	13	1	13	Brewers
Pete Rose	12	1	6	Reds
Mike Hargrove	12	1	15	Baltimore (1), Indians (0)
Tom Runnells	10	1	10	Expos
Bruce Kimm	9	1	10	Cubs
Al Pedrique	6	1	7	D-backs
Lee Mazzilli	3	1	2	Baltimore
Don Zimmer	26	0	25	Cubs
Russ Nixon	23	0	19	Braves
Nick Leyva	19	0	20	Phillies
Tom Trebelhorn	12	0	20	Cubs
Jerry Manuel	9	0	12	White Sox
Grady Little	8	0	7	Red Sox, Dodgers
Jim Essian	7	0	9	Cubs
Lee Elia	7	0	7	Phillies
Tony Perez	7	0	9	Reds, Marlins
Joe Girardi	6	0	4	Marlins
Tommy Helms	6	0	7	Reds
Ron Gardenhire	3	0	2	Twins
Pete Mackanin	3	0	1	Pirates
Larry Parrish	3	0	6	Tigers
John Gibbons	3	0	3	Blue Jays
Ozzie Guillen	2	0	3	White Sox
Mike Scioscia	2	0	3	Angels
Glenn Hoffman	2	0	3	Dodgers

Lou

Aside from being for sale, the Chicago Cubs are under new management this year Lou Piniella running the team from the dugout. Teams managed by Piniella have hit a total of 997 batters to date, which makes him third among active managers, behind Tony Larussa (1,333) and Joe Torre (1,045). Larussa is actually 2nd all time for plunks thrown by teams he's managed, behind only Connie Mack (1,724). Of those 4, only Connie Mack did not watch from the dugout as one of his pitchers plunked Biggio, but he died in 1956, so that's understandable.

Among managers who have actually managed while Biggio has been in the league, Sparky Anderson's teams have hit the most batters (785) without plunking Biggio, but Anderson retire before Biggio ever played against his Tigers.

Piniella hasn't managed a team that plunked Biggio since the '92 Reds hit him twice. Piniella's teams have only plunked Biggio in two of the 57 games he's managed against Biggio, giving him a managerial plunk rate of just 0.035%. Terry Bevington holds the record in that category - his pitchers plunked Biggio in 2 out of 3 games he managed against Biggio. Current Astros' manager Phil Garner is actually 7th - overseeing 5 plunks for Milwaukee, for a total of 5 plunks in 23 games.

If Piniella's Cubs do plunk Biggio, he will be the 6th person to manage the Cubs when they plunked Biggio. That would move them into a tie for 2nd place with the Mets for most managers who have overseen a Biggio-plunking for the team. The Reds lead the way with 8 different managers. Jim Riggleman managed the Cubs for 8 of Biggio's HBPs, Don Baylor managed 4, Jim Lefebvre and Dusty Baker were there for 3 each, and Bruce Kimm could have pulled a Cubs pitcher after plunking Biggio once. But he didn't - he let Kyle Farnsworth pitch to Lance Berkman, who doubled, driving in Biggio and Vizcaino, but the Cubs still held on to win.

Inspirational

It's a sports cliche that some managers can get their players to run through walls for them, but not many can get a player to take over a hundred plunks. Larry Dierker got 112 plunks out of Craig Biggio, and only 6 managers had a player get more HBPs for them (not including Fred Clarke who was hit 125 times as a player/manager).
Most plunks by player/manager combinations:

Manager	Player	Span	Plunks
Ned Hanlon	Hughie Jennings	1893-1903	245
Frank Selee	Tommy Tucker	1890-1897	150
John McGraw	Art Fletcher	1909-1920	132
Fred Clarke	Honus Wagner	1897-1915	116
Joe McCarthy	Frankie Crosetti	1932-1946	114
Gene Mauch	Ron Hunt	1971-1974	114
Larry Dierker	Craig Biggio	1997-2001	112
Connie Mack	Jimmie Dykes	1918-1932	93
Joe Torre	...*	1996-2004	92

*Some overrated Yankee who gets too much press as it is, and I'm not printing his name.

Not only did Larry Dierker manage Biggio for more of his plunks than any other Astros manager, he inspired Biggio to a higher ratio of HBPs per plate appearance than any other - that could have something to do with Dierker's Astros 3 first place finishes. However, current manager Phil Garner has gotten more home run power from Biggio than any previous manager.

Years	Manager	Plate Appearances	HBP	HR	HBP/PA	HR/PA
1988	Hal Lanier	131	0	3	0	0.0229
'89-'93	Art Howe	3166	28	48	0.00884	0.01516
'94-'96	Terry Collins	1907	57	43	0.02989	0.02255
'97-'01	Larry Dierker	3414	112	86	0.03281	0.02519
'02-'04	Jimy Williams	1761	55	43	0.03123	0.02442
'04-?	Phil Garner	602	15	20	0.02492	0.03322

more connections

The Colorado Rockies have hit Craig Biggio with a pitch 27 times, but 13 of those occurred between 1993 and 1998 while the Rockies were managed by Don Baylor. Baylor also watched the team he was managing plunk Biggio 4 more times with the Cubs, so his 17 rank 3rd among managers. Dusty Baker (20) and Tony LaRussa (17) are the only managers whose teams have hit Biggio with a pitch more often than Baylor.

Top ten Biggio plunking managers (including ties):

Dusty Baker	20
Tony LaRussa	18
Don Baylor	17
Jim Leyland	13
Davey Johnson	11
Bruce Bochy	11
Lloyd McClendon	11
Jim Riggleman	10
Felipe Alou	9
Terry Francona	8
Buddy Bell	8
Jack McKeon	8