Mets Decade Rankings: Hit-By-Pitch

by Eric Simon on Dec 23, 2009 2:47 PM EST

Num	Player	HBP	From Year	To Year	PA
1	Cliff Floyd	37	2003	2006	1884
2	Carlos Delgado	33	2006	2009	2023
3	David Wright	28	2004	2009	3665
4	Vance Wilson	20	2000	2004	713
5	Jason Phillips	19	2001	2004	894
6	Joe McEwing	17	2000	2004	1169
7	Edgardo Alfonzo	17	2000	2002	1731
8	Mike Piazza	14	2000	2005	2902
9	Jeromy Burnitz	14	2002	2003	809
10	Fernando Tatis	12	2008	2009	685

Hits-by-pitch have long intrigued me because they're often overlooked when considering the skill sets of particular hitters. While a lot of HBPs are just happenstance, some players get hit often enough to register as some kind of offensive trait. While getting beaned by a baseball may not be a true skill per se, some players, likely due to batting stance or movement in the batter's box, are just more susceptible to the hit-batsman. An HBP is basically the same as a walk value-wise, with some adjustment made for pain incurred.

Cliff Floyd was hit once every 51 plate appearances with the Mets, more than four times as often as Mike Piazza. Vance Wilson was hit once every 35 times to the plate, which is more often than Craig Biggio (once every 44). Amazingly, Wilson was hit even more often after he left the Mets, and has a career HBP% of 2.8% in 1,054 plate appearances (versus Biggio's 2.3% in a much larger sample of 12.503 plate appearances).

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Poor Cliff

I really can’t remember anyone else in recent memory getting hit with more pitches that seemed to hurt (as opposed to Utley, who is hit a lot, but many/most seem to be glancing blows). I can’t tell you how many times I remember seeing him tearing as he made his way over to first.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Dec 23, 2009 5:19 PM EST reply actions

Fascinating

"Never throw a slider to The Glider."

- Ed Charles, No. 5

by The Glider on Dec 23, 2009 6:03 PM EST reply actions

Give Cliff the Ron Hunt Award

After his Met career, Hunt was an original Expo. In one of their early years, he got 50 times in one year. (Of course, with grission, you never feel a thing). As the man himself once said, “some people give their bodies to science. I give mine to baseball.”

"I've been trying transcendental meditation, and that helps me be passive and wait on the curve. I've got to find something else to hit the slider." - George (The Stork) Theodore

by StorkFan on Dec 23, 2009 8:13 PM EST reply actions

Leave it to the Mets...

…to have their injury-prone player be the one with the getting-hit-by-a-pitch skill.

by Howard Megdal on Dec 23, 2009 8:39 PM EST reply actions

There are only two HBP's i can actually remember

One on DWright this season, sickening. And the all time worst HBP Clemens on Piazza. Man I wanted Clemens killed for that! I was furious and wanted blood. Shaun Estes and his pathetic throw behind Clemens in the interleague game was a pathetic joke.

Clemens is, and will always be, pure scum.

Asking a General Manager to slim down his budget is like asking an alcoholic to blow up a distillery.

by scott from peekskill on Dec 23, 2009 10:05 PM EST reply actions

As long as we're actually having discussions on HBP

I would be remiss if not mentioning the most famous HBP in Mets history: Cleon Jones and the shoe polish, 1969 WS Game 5.

"I've been trying transcendental meditation, and that helps me be passive and wait on the curve. I've got to find something else to hit the slider." - George (The Stork) Theodore

by StorkFan on Dec 23, 2009 10:20 PM EST reply actions