Beanballs can be a touchy subject. Though accidents will happen and beanings are a natural part of the game, each and every one invariably stirs the emotions, provoking questions of intent. Whenever a player gets drilled, there will be fans and teammates who believe the pitcher did it on purpose to send a message.
Intent, of course, can never be proven, which is a big part of what makes this so tricky. It is only through retrospection that we can observe things like Pedro ranking #6 all-time in WHIP and #15 in HBP and begin to make real conclusions. It is with that in mind that I present to you the following split:
Alex Rodriguez PA per HBP, 1995-2000: 115
Alex Rodriguez PA per HBP, 2001-present: 50
I don't think many pitchers were big fans of the Alex Rodriguez contract.
0 recs | 41 comments
I have no idea where you come up with these facts
seattlebruin - January 12, 2010
Baseball-Reference.com!
Big city convenience with small town charm!
Jeff Sullivan - January 12, 2010
Sounds like Temecula
seattlebruin - January 12, 2010
Eww
JonBBT - January 12, 2010
My guess is boredom
Dewey N - January 12, 2010
awesome
Bohawk - January 12, 2010 via mobile
Might this also correlate...
With his position in the batting order? Seems to me earlier in his career he hit higher in the order (pitchers emphasis on keeping him off base), while later in his career as he got slower on the base-paths he’s been hit in the middle of the order (pitchers emphasis on keeping him from getting an XBH and driving in runs)
However, I’ve never thrown a professional pitch, and my desire to bean him rose after 2000 as well.
Adam B - January 12, 2010
Could it also correlate to a change in batting stance?
Edging up on the plate a bit, putting on the elbow pad, etc? In a highly unscientific search I just conducted on google images, it looks like he didn’t use the elbow pad as a Mariner. Nor was he as hefty a target, girthwise.
Hoft - January 12, 2010
Could easily have something to do with it
This, of course, is not a scientific examination.
Jeff Sullivan - January 12, 2010
Anyone know when he did start where the big elbow pad?
Would definitely give him less incentive to get out of the way.
JonBBT - January 12, 2010
I've been sitting here reading that wrong for about 5 minutes.
To sum up, pitchers hit Rodriguez with pitches twice as frequently post-Texas contract when compared to when he was making next to nothing in Seattle.
Got it.
Two Rs and Two Ls - January 12, 2010
Yup, did that the first couple of takes as well
seattlebruin - January 12, 2010
PA/HBP isn't a very intuitive stat.
I’d think HBP/600 PA or something would cause less confusion, but eh, it’s all good.
Terminator X - January 12, 2010
I thought about showing it as a rate, but the percentages were really small
Jeff Sullivan - January 12, 2010
It really did take me a while to figure out the smaller number meant fewer HBP
And I’m only admitting it because it appears to be commonplace.
njd.aitken - January 12, 2010
Just a thought...
but doesn’t that directly corrspond to when he started taking steroids?
Word could have traveled in the locker-rooms that he was cheating the pitchers and have had nothing to do with the contract.
azed - January 12, 2010
I highly doubt that has much to do with it.
Tons of guys were known users and even without looking it up I doubt their HBP numbers went up.
Kirk - January 12, 2010 via mobile
It may not correlate with steroids, but it's interesting (to me) that 6 of the top 8 years for HBP rate
occurred between 2001-2007. 2008 just missed out.
The rates didn’t double or anything, but the period is basically the high water mark for HBPs in baseball history.
(In the national league, it’s edged out by the 1890s, but that shouldn’t count).
marc w - January 12, 2010
Sometimes I wonder if the aggressive new approach by MLB hasn't backfired a bit.
You get the first one for free, if I was going up against a pitcher that liked to come inside a lot, strategy wise I’d try to get warnings for both benches on the first pitch I threw. That’s a bit extreme, but on a serious note, there have been a few series where I’ve heard the announcers speculating about the bean balls and the warnings.
Kermit. - January 12, 2010
Per game or total?
simply more games played in the 2001-2007 years than ever before
seattlebruin - January 12, 2010
A good article on this for anyone interested:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-hbp-explosion-that-almost-nobody-seems-to-have-noticed/
Jeff Sullivan - January 12, 2010
That puts a whole different light on it
Based on the data presented there, you would’ve expected ARod to get more HBP in the later period simply because it was later, and all players were getting HBP a lot more. That overall trend probably swamps any particular animosity pitchers may have had towards him in particular.
wandergeist - January 13, 2010
A-Rod's HBP rate more than doubled
Jeff Sullivan - January 13, 2010
Players will try to gain any edge they can
and wearing gigantic pads and umpires not calling batters for not even flinching at inside pitchers is an edge that hitters have definitely taken advantage of. So much so that pitching inside, if you believe the pundits, is now so much less common that it has far more drastically changed the state of the game than steroids has.
Matthew - January 12, 2010
I wish those gigantice elbow pads would get banned.
Or at least have the umpires start calling strikes (or is it an out?) if the batter doesn’t try to move. I understand trying to keep players from being injured. It just seems like an unfair advantage to be able to just get hit by a pitch without moving and get a free base.
Jed MC - January 13, 2010
Or just move the batters box back
Like Bill James suggested: one inch every four years for the next 16 years, so that the batter is eventually four inches further off the plate. See the Hardball Times link Jeff included above.
wandergeist - January 13, 2010
Bigger target?
More bulk, easier to hit on purpose or not
wandergeist - January 12, 2010
We just found out about the steriod last year
Do you really think the media wouldn’t have gotten hold of it had some players known almost a decade earlier?
njd.aitken - January 12, 2010
And why would they hit him if he was apparently tipping pitches?
whatever
JonBBT - January 12, 2010
Haha
vivaelpujols - January 12, 2010
I think it is positively correlated with ARod turning into a perceived jerk
Bohawk - January 12, 2010 via mobile
Which was in large part caused by the new contract.
Terminator X - January 12, 2010
This is why I like visiting here.
Important statistics like this one are analyzed daily, along with treatises on ballpark shape and, um, beer.
And the comments are generally hilarious.
AMb1valenT - January 12, 2010
I wouldn't call this an important statistic really.
Kirk - January 12, 2010 via mobile
I wouldn't call your humor detector functional, really, either.
Though I suppose you could think the treatises on beer are, in fact, important.
wandergeist - January 12, 2010
Perhaps it is that free from Griffey he is the one who gets plunked when the other team gets all uppity?
Poochie - January 12, 2010
In all my years of playing, I think I've only been hit twice
Once in the foot and once in the head. The head one was deserving though as I came to bat with a wood bat during a high school game instead of aluminum. The pitcher didn’t like that much, saw it as an insult
Fuzz - January 12, 2010
So
basically you’re corroborating the widespread belief in Seattle that A-Rod became a bitch once he left Seattle and started doing things like leaning into pitches? Sweet, now I have stats to back it up.
Fuckmikereilly - January 12, 2010
You should probably
Also look at the rate for M’s batters as a whole in the two timeframes and compare it to Rangers batters in the same timeframes. If, you know, you were being serious and rigorous and whatnot.
wandergeist - January 12, 2010
I always thought there was a feeling that A-Rod was soft
That after he got brushed back by Clemens in the 2000 ALCS, pitchers thought they could intimidate him by coming up and in on him. Obviously, some of those brushback pitches are gonna hit him. However, I could be making this up.
Sportszilla - January 12, 2010
I wonder if there was a spike last year.
After the GQ photo shoot of course…
Disturbing.
hcoguy - January 12, 2010
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