plunks by inning by team

Last week, we saw that the Cincinnati Reds are the all time leader in plunking Craig Biggio in relief pitching appearances, so it's not surprising that the Reds also hold the records for plunking Biggio in the 7th inning or later, and plunking Biggio in extra innings. The Reds have hit Biggio with 9 pitches in the 7th or later, 1 ahead of the Cubs in that split, and the Reds are the only team against whom Biggio has been plunked twice in extra innings. They hold the record for plunking Biggio in the 3rd, 8th and 12th inning, and are tied for the lead in 10th inning Biggio plunks. The Rockies, of course, hold the record for plunking Biggio the most in a particular inning, with 10 first inning plunks. (Not in the same game... that would be a record.)

Here's an inning by inning list of the teams which have plunked Biggio the most:

Inning	Top teams in plunking Biggio
1	Rockies - 10 Cardinals - 10 Mets - 5 Reds - 5 Giants - 5
2	Rockies -2 Marlins - 2 Padres - 2 Cardinals -2
3	Reds - 6 Rockies - 5 Cardinals - 5 Mets - 3 Pirates -3 Cubs - 3 Giants -3
4	Rockies - 4 Pirates - 3 Brewers - 3
5	Rockies - 6 Marlins - 4 Brewers - 4 Pirates - 4 Cardinals - 4
6	Cubs - 3 Giants - 3 Expos/Nats -3 Cardinals - 2 Phillies - 2 Pirates -2 Dodgers - 2
7	Cubs - 5 Expos - 3 Mets - 3 Phillies - 3 Pirates - 3 Padres - 3 Giants - 3 Cardinals - 3
8	Reds - 5 Rockies - 2 Braves -2 Dodgers - 2 Pirates -2 Brewers -2 Rangers - 2
9	Cubs - 2 Padres -2
10	Reds - 1 Mets - 1 Padres - 1
11	Cardinals -1
12	Reds -1
13	Braves -1

Here are Biggio's overall HBPs per inning, including wins and losses in those games:

Inning	HBP:BGO	Wins-Losses	Win Pct.
1	56	33-23	0.589
2	16	13-3	0.813
3	41	21-20	0.512
4	27	18-9	0.667
5	37	26-11	0.703
6	22	9-13	0.409
7	38	23-15	0.605
8	26	11-15	0.423
9	14	4-10	0.286
10	3	1-2	0.333
11	1	0-1	0
12	1	1-0	1
13	1	1-0	1

ages and innings

It's common knowledge that the average age of the pitchers who have hit Craig Biggio with a pitch through the 2005 season was 28.50 years, but you may not have heard that the average age of the pitchers who have plunked Biggio in 2006 is also 28.50 years. It's not exactly the same - 28.50388 to 28.50064, but this year's seven plunks have only moved the average age of the group down 0.00008.

Here are the year by year average ages of pitchers who hit Biggio with pitches, as well as the career averages as of the end of each season. 2006, or course, is season to date.

Year	Season Avg. Age	Career Avg. Age
1989	30.21	30.21
1990	27.32	29.25
1991	29.67	29.32
1992	27.11	28.46
1993	30.06	29.03
1994	29.09	29.05
1995	28.67	28.90
1996	27.99	28.61
1997	26.76	28.08
1998	28.50	28.15
1999	31.15	28.37
2000	31.99	28.71
2001	27.31	28.51
2002	27.89	28.46
2003	28.04	28.41
2004	29.02	28.45
2005	29.32	28.50
2006	28.50	28.50

Pitchers who hit Craig Biggio with a pitch in the 4th inning tend to be the youngest, on average, at 27.37 years old, and the 139 HBPs that he's accumulated in the first 4 innings have been thrown by pitchers averaging 28.29 years old, while the 141 pitches he's been hit by in the 5th inning or later have been thrown by hurlers averaging 28.71 years of age. The 14 9th inning plunks have been thrown by pitchers with the highest average age at 29.90 (excluding the small data sets in the extra frames). The 7th inning plunkers have the 2nd highest average age at 29.17, but that has been dragged down this season by three 7th inning HBPs thrown by pitchers averaging 26.06 years.
Biggio's 4 other HBPs this season have come in the 3rd and 6th inning, and the average age for both of those innings has increased this season. 3rd inning plunkers have averaged 30.07 years old this season, raising the average fro 29.09 to 29.16. Pitchers who have hit Biggio in the 6th inning have averaged 31.13 years old this season, raising that average from 28.36 last year to 28.48 now.

Inning	Average Age	HBPs
1	28.23	56
2	27.83	15
3	29.16	41
4	27.37	27
5	27.51	35
6	28.48	22
7	29.17	38
8	28.98	26
9	29.90	14
10	29.37	3
11	30.97	1
12	32.29	1
13	26.73	1

Tonight's pitcher, Paul Maholm is about 24.12 years old.

festival of inning data

Recent discoveries on the internet of inning-by-inning data for the 1999 season have now made it possible to complete the inning data for all of Craig Biggio's 275 career plunks (thanks to retrosheet.org and archive.org's copy of the 1999 version of Astros.com). In celebration of this, here's a ridiculous amount of data on plunks by inning:

The Los Angelos Dodgers have hit Craig Biggio with a pitch 12 times. The Astros are 7-5 in those games. But, when Biggio has gotten hit by a Dodgers' pitch in the 2nd, 5th, 6th or 7th inning the Astros are 6-0. When they have hit him in the 4th and 8th, the Astros are 0-4. The Astros are 1-1 when the Dodgers hit Biggio with a pitch in the 3rd inning, but the win was at home and the loss was on the road.

Here's a handy reference table illustrating how many times the Dodgers have plunked Biggio in each inning, and the outcome of those games.

	Home		Away		Total
Inning	HBP	Win-Loss	HBP	Win-Loss	hbp	Win-Loss
2	0	0-0	1	1-0	1	1-0
3	1	1-0	1	0-1	2	1-1
4	2	0-2	0	0-0	2	0-2
5	1	1-0	0	0-0	1	1-0
6	1	1-0	1	1-0	2	2-0
7	0	0-0	2	2-0	2	2-0
8	0	0-0	2	0-2	2	0-2
Total	5	3-2	7	4-3	12	7-5

The Dodgers and the Braves are the only National League teams who have never hit Craig Biggio with a pitch in the first inning.

Overall, Craig Biggio has been hit 56 times in the first inning, accounting for better than 20% of his total plunkings. But, other than the few examples of extra inning plunks, the Astros appear most likely to win the game when he gets hit in the 2nd inning. Logically, since Biggio has almost always led off or been near the top of the order, the Astros would have to score some runs for Biggio to bat again and get hit in the 2nd inning.
Here are the complete inning by inning plunk totals, with wins and losses of the games in which each plunk occurred.

Inning	HBPs	Wins	Losses	Win pct
1	56	33	23	0.589
2	15	13	2	0.867
3	38	21	17	0.553
4	27	18	9	0.667
5	35	24	11	0.686
6	22	9	13	0.409
7	36	22	14	0.611
8	26	11	15	0.423
9	14	4	10	0.286
10	3	1	2	0.333
11	1	0	1	0
12	1	1	0	1.000
13	1	1	0	1.000

The above table double counts the 20 games in which Biggio has been hit by 2 pitches. Craig Biggio has been hit in the first and third inning of a game 3 different times, but the Astros are 1-2 in those games. Overall, the Astros are 14-6 when Biggio gets hit twice.

Wins and losses in 2 plunk games by inning of each plunk:

Innings		W/L Record
1st HBP	2nd HBP	Wins	Losses
1	2	0	1
1	3	1	2
1	4	1	0
1	6	1	0
1	7	2	0
2	3	1	0
2	4	1	0
2	5	1	0
3	5	1	0
3	7	0	1
4	5	1	0
4	6	1	0
4	7	1	0
4	8	1	1
5	7	0	1
6	7	1	0

When Craig Biggio gets hit in the first inning, he scores a run 42.8% of the time and the Astros are 19-5 in games in which a first inning plunk leads to Biggio scoring a run. He has only scored on 3 of the 15 times he's reached base in the 2nd inning after being plunked, but the Astros won the game all three times.

Inning	Runs off HBPs	scoring rate HBPs %	Wins	Losses
1	24	42.9%	19	5
2	3	20.0%	3	0
3	15	39.5%	11	4
4	10	37.0%	9	1
5	14	40.0%	11	3
6	3	13.6%	2	1
7	12	33.3%	9	3
8	8	30.8%	6	2
9	5	35.7%	3	2
10	0	0.0%	0	0
11	0	0.0%	0	0
12	0	0.0%	0	0
13	1	100.0%	1	0
Total	95	34.5%	74	21

The totals of 74 wins and 21 losses again double count games in which Biggio scored a run on two different plunks in a game. He's done that 4 times, and the Astros are 3-1 in those games. Overall the Astros are 71-20 when Craig Biggio scores at least one run after reaching base on a plunk.

Also, readers may notice that last season we had come to the conclusion that Biggio had scored 96 times after reaching base on a plunk, but this table shows 95. Now that I've actually seen the inning summaries of all 255 games, I believe 95 is the correct total.