Dave Cameron looks at the pitches that hit Carlos Quentin using PITCHf/x:
Quentin’s rate of being hit by pitches within six inches of the inside corner is 20 times higher than the Major League average. It is, at the minimum, a little hard to have sympathy for the guy.
For the record, last night’s pitch from Greinke was plotted at -1.504, so it is just barely outside of that sample area. It was certainly inside and off the plate, but most batters would not have been hit by that pitch.
How can a $147 million control pitcher throw high and inside when his catcher is set up for a low outside pitch, and then mouth off to the hitter he just hit “accidentally”? How can a power hitter who has hit three homers against the control pitcher and been hit twice before charge the mound when he never did that the first 115 times he was hit?
I respect Dave Cameron’s efforts, but I think there’s a whole lot more going on between Greinke and Quentin than could ever be expressed in a graph.
The next time that a competent major league pitcher intentionally hits the leadoff batter with a 3-2 pitch when holding a 1 run lead will be the first. The Ron Hunt wannabe ought to be suspended for six weeks, not because that’s how long ZG will be out, but because he’s literally too stupid to live for thinking that was a beanball. Given his hitting style, even someone pulling a Cole Hamels and outright confessing to plunking him on purpose should get the benefit of the doubt–draping oneself over the plate pretty much forfeits any right a hitter has to official mercy when he charges the mound after the inevitable happens, particularly when anyone who knows anything about baseball knows full well that it wasn’t an intentional HBP.
Well, MSE, that’s the consensus of fans who “know the game” as well as national sportwriters, But when you have two players with a history of clashes and an apparently strong dislike for each other, pronouncing on intent based on the game situation is irrelevant.