Number 13 Andres Galarraga was hit by a pitch 178 times in his career. Andres was the League Leader 2 of his first 3 years in hit by pitch as a regular. He was in double figures all three years. Then he didn’t have double figures for 5 years. He did miss a good amount of time due to injury 4 of those years. Then he had six straight years of double players when he played. He missed one full season due to injury. It is interesting is that he had figures a lot higher than he did the early years, but never led the league in hit by pitches again.
Number 14 is Alex Rodriguez with 176 times hit by a pitch in his career. Spoiler alert, this is 6 more than Derek Jeter. Rodriguez never led the league but was hit by 21 pitches one year. He was named MVP that year. In 3 of his best 4 years in hit by pitch he won his three MVP awards. He was in the top 10 in hit by pitches 7 times.
Number 15 is Curt Welch at 173 times hit by a pitch in his career. Curt was an American Association player for most of his 10-year career. He played a couple of years in the National League, after the Association shut down, but neither as a regular. He was an OK player, but never great. He once led the league in doubles. He did lead the league in hit by pitches 3 times in four years. He was on 3 pennant winning St. Louis Brown teams as a starter. He played in 3 post seasons with them in the 19th Century World Series. He had one excellent World Series and two lousy ones. It is funny baseball reference has a lot of his stats for the World Series, but don’t have the number of games he played. You would think someone could put that together.
Number 16 is Carlos Delgado at 172 hit by pitches for his career. Delgado got to play on a World Champion team when he joined the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays as a 21-year-old. He didn’t make it to the post season until the 2006 Mets. He had a terrific post season, and the Mets can’t blame him for the post season loss. In the first round he hit .429 in the three games against the Dodgers with a homerun. In Championship against the Cardinals he hit .304 but walked 6 times in the Championship series to put his on base percentage over .400. He also hit 3 homeruns driving in 9 in the seven games. Delgado had 13 years playing 100 or more games. Every year he was hit by a pitch 8 to 19 times winning one title.
Number 17 Derek Jeter had 170 hit by pitches by a pitch in his career. Jeter’s highest finish for a season was fourth in 2004. He never had a lot in a season. His season high was 14 which he did twice and that is a many way tie for the 396th. Overall, as a hitter Jeter did everything well, but didn’t specialize in any one thing. He hit for good power, topping off at 24 homeruns. That was the year he slugged .552 but that was the only year he slugged above .500. He knew how to take a walk but was better in some seasons than in others at that. His on base percentage was over .400 four times and he had a solid .377 for his career. After age 23 his base stealing percentage was good and he stole enough bases to be a concern. The main thing as mainly a top of the order hitter in the first and second spot is he scored runs. He scored 100 or more runs 13 times and 99 another season. Sure he had some great hitters behind him but is still very impressive.
Number 18 is Kid Elberfeld with 165 hit by pitches in his career. Elberfeld led the league in hit by pitches twice. However, he finished in the top 10, actually top 5, nine times. It helped him be an above average hitter as his OPS plus is 106. His fielding for his career was a little below average as a shortstop. Basically, for his career he was a little above average player. I have him as having the 73rd career at shortstop of all time.
