It doesn't seem like, with most hitters, there is a strong correlation between getting hit by pitches and drawing walks. Fernando Vina, for example, rarely walks, yet he is second in major league baseball this season with 19 times HBP.

A strange bit of trivia this year is the fact that Garrett Anderson, who has not once been hit by a pitch, has drawn only 23 walks, while Craig Biggio has been hit 25 times. Anderson has 573 AB's and Biggio has 533. So in a similar number of plate appearances, Biggio's HBP is higher than Anderson's BB. Very odd.

Gary,

I wonder if James ever worked out if the Favorite Toy works in cases like this?

It surprised me to find that Carl Everett, who crowds the plate more than any player I can think of, has only 48 HBP's in his entire career. Where a hitter stands in the box must not be crucial in accumulating hit-by-pitches.

I suppose that the keys to HBP's are 1) leaning into pitches (in the way that Baylor did, and Pete Rose more occassionally did) and 2) don't ever get out of the way of a ball thrown near you (yet make it look like you tried to get out of the way, as I imagine Corky Miller does).

In my own playing days - from age 6 to age 18 - I remember it hurting a hell of a lot every time I got hit. I was never beaned in the head, but the worst pains from getting plunked, for me, were getting hit on my front foot, where my shoes were always tight around my toes, and getting hit on the un-meaty part of my shin. Ouch!

When I was 13 and made the jump out of Little League like you are supposed to, I saw my first slider from a 15 year old kid in my first game on the big field. As the pitch seemingly was coming right into my zone, I began my swing. I strode into the ball but as I turned my hips the thigh high fastball I thought was coming broke towards me.

Watching the Sports Center highlights a couple of weeks ago on ESPN, I witnessed a major league hitter - a lefty, I don't remember who - swing and miss at a Byun-Hyung Kim slider which then hit the batter squarely on the sternum. That isn't quite as physically painful as getting hit in the boys, but it's something I've never seen a major leaguer do -- get plunked in the middle of his body on a ball he swung at.