Stat of the Night: Plunked

Far be it from me to steal the thunder of a certain frequent commenter on this site, but the stat of the night is hit-by-pitch related.

The Brewers were hit by three pitches today. Corey Hart, Aramis Ramirez, and

The Milwaukee Brewers currently lead the National League with 29 HBP as a team. Lead isn't a strong enough word. The Brewers are miles ahead of all National League competition. Coming into today, the Cubs were second on the NL. They had been hit by a pitch 16 times. Nearly half as much as Milwaukee has. Twenty-five teams had between 9 and 18 home runs. The team with 18, the Indians, are third in the MLB.

Only one team has kept pace with the Brewers: The Tampa Bay Rays. By virtue of Luke Scott being hit by a Franklin Morales pitch, the Rays remain one HBP ahead of Milwaukee.

So what makes these two teams so much more apt to be hit by pitches? I don't know. Maybe team's take offense to something the Brewers and Rays do? Perhaps it's a philosophy: The Brewers have had sixteen more baserunners than the average team because of being hit by pitches.

It seems like at least something small must be going on to cause so many plunks. It's hard to imagine that two teams are getting hit at such a greater pace than the other 28. Then again, you wonder how the Mariners have managed to have only been hit three times this year.