2012 Hit By Pitch Rates

After last night's bench clearing brawl between the Dodgers and Padres we decided to take a quick look at MLB's league leaders in 2012 in the "hit by pitch" category. Carlos Quentin (Padres) led MLB batters in 2012 with a HBP Rate of 5% as he was hit 17 times. Gavin Floyd of the White Sox led all MLB pitchers hitting 14 batters with a HBP rate of 1.93%.

Update on Friday, April 12, 2013 at 4:21PM by MLB Heat

A few more related "2012 hit by pitch" notes...

1. During the 2012 regular season there were a total of 1,494 plate appearances that resulted in a hit by pitch.

2. During the 2012 regular season Zach Greinke hit a total of 2 opposing batters.

3. During the 2012 regular season, of the 1,494 plate appearances that resulted in a hit by pitch, only 53 occurred with a  3-2 count (3.5%).

Leaning In

Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies and Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox lead the majors in hit by pitches since the start of the 2008 season.  Utley leads with 77 and Quentin is close with 75, but there is a big fall off to Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers with 50.  Utley and Quentin do a great job of leaning in so they are closer to the strike zone.

Chase Utley hit by pitch (left) vs. all MLB LHB (right), 2008-2011.Utley comes very close to getting hit in the strike zone, which would be strikes.  He also manages to take a pitch on the foot more often than most left-handed batters.

Carlos Quentin hit by pitch (left) vs. all MLB RHB (right), 2008-2011.Carlos does not lean in as much as Utley, with the highest concentration of hit by pitches very much inside. The difference between Quentin and most right-handed batters, is he lacks the big fall off as the pitches get closer to the plate.  Maybe he's just better at getting out of the way of the border-line strikes than Utley, as he seldom gets hit low.

This is not a trival stat.  Hit by pitches add over 20 points to Utley's and Quentin's OBP in this time frame.  Avoiding outs is a hugh part of offense, and these two players found a painful way to help out their teams.

April's Outside Power Hitters

April's Top 15 Power Hitters on Outside Pitches

• Jose Bautista (TOR) continues to crush pitches regardless of where they are in the zone. His 5 HRs on outside pitches leads all major league hitters. Curtis Granderson (NYY), Mark Teixeira (NYY), and Ryan Howard (PHI) are tied for second with 4 HRs.
• Peter Bourjos (LAA) leads the league with 4 triples on outside pitches.
• Carlos Quentin (CWS) leads all hitters with 6 doubles on outside pitches.
• Carlos Santana (CLE) lead the majors last year with a .643 SLG on outside pitches. He's currently ranked 42nd with a .476 SLG. Albert Pujols, who was ranked 2nd last year with a .601 SLG, currently holds a .167 SLG on outside pitches, putting him in 235th place.