Coward Ryan Dempster may have simply been continuing a Red Sox club policy of cheating when Dempster drilled Yankee Alex Rodriguez recently in Fenway Park in Boston. After much procrastination Dempster received a slap on the wrist job well done penalty of one delayed start from the Major Baseball League. (MBL).
KEEPING SCORE
Red Sox Have Edge in Beanball Wars
By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN
Published: September 4, 2013 in The New York Times
Dempster ... whether he knew it or not, continued a long-established trend in which the Red Sox plunk the Yankees far more than the other way around, an issue that may come into play over the next four days as the teams meet in a key weekend series in the Bronx. ...
Dempster ... pitched on Wednesday night against Detroit and will thus be a bystander this weekend...
Since he (Joe Girardi) took over as manager of the Yankees in 2008, the Red Sox have hit 67 Yankees batters, and the Yankees have hit just 49 Red Sox batters.
In fact, stretching back a decade further, to 1998, the Red Sox lead the hit-by-pitch matchup, 162 to 116, having hit more batters in their season series with New York in 13 of those 16 seasons. Twice they hit 18 Yankees batters in a single year. This season they have hit 10 Yankees and been hit five times in return.
This trend even holds all the way back to at least 1950. Since then, the Red Sox have outscored the Yankees in the beanball war, 337 to 264...
David Ortiz ... has been hit just 32 times in his career and, amazingly enough, just once in 185 games against the Yankees ... in 809 plate appearances against the Yankees ...
Jason Giambi was hit 16 times by Boston in his time with the Yankees, a number now matched by Rodriguez. But both trail Derek Jeter, who leads all Yankees batters with 24 plunkings by Boston since he began his major league career in 1995.
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Part of the problem for the Yankees is that in the Derek Jeter era they have been managed by a couple of good Joes: Torre and Girardi. Both made it clear that they did not believe in having their pitchers intentionally hit opposing batters even in retaliation for Yankee batters being hit. Yankee starter Mike Mussina was well known for opposing the cowardly action of the likes of Ryan Dempster or the eminently despicable Pedro Martinez.
John Farrell in his first season as Boston manager denied that Dempster intentionally hit Rodriguez. Farrell could have simply not answered the question but he chose to lie.
Terry Francona managed Boston from 2004 through 2011. In 2011, Red Sox pitchers hit batters 90 times; Tampa holds the record at 95. See my own post from two years ago:
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Do Red Sox pitchers hit batters intentionally more than other teams?
A ratio of BB and HBP indicates intent. If a pitching staff has a lot of both the pitchers are just wild. If there's a high rate of HBP to BB, the pitchers are hitting batters intentionally. I call this the meanness factor...
I don't see a pattern in 2010 to support the contention that Boston hit batters intentionally more than other teams. Without BB to provide context, simply looking at HBP is interesting but not compelling.
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So far in 2013 Boston is right about at the American Conference average (43) for hitting opposing batters: 42. Yankee pitchers have hit opposing batters 43 times.
BB:
AC average: 424
Red Sox: 446
Yankees: 370
Applying the meanness factor this suggests that in 2013 against all other teams Yankee pitchers are intentionally hitting opposing batters more than Red Sox pitchers. The Times articles states that in 2013 HBP between the two teams is:
Yankee batters HBP 10
Red Sox batters HBP 5.
So unless Boston is also walking Yankee batters at a rate of 2 to 1, then Red Sox pitchers are intentionally hitting Yankee batters. The 10 Yankee HBP is 24% of the Red Sox total in only 8.5% of their games: 12/(84+57). The percent of Red Sox HBP by Yankee pitchers is half that in 8.6% of Yankee games: 12/(75+64). Red Sox pitchers lose restraint when it comes to the Yankees and hit Yankees much more frequently than they hit batters of the other teams. Yankee pitchers seem to hit Red Sox batters at a slightly higher rate as they hit non Red Sox batters; with only five Red Sox HBP the numbers are too low to be over analysed.
MBL commissioner Allen Huber "Bud" Selig, it's your move, unless, of course, you're too busy rising from the dead to purge the sport of the scourge of steroids and other heinous performance enhancing drugs (PED).
Monday, August 5, 2013
Worse offense: steroids or hitting batters in the head ... twice.
Priorities are completely upside down in baseball. Ian Kennedy hit two Dodger batters in the HEAD. In the HEAD!
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