First, some background. Carlos Quentin was drafted 29th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2003. He debuted in 2004 with the Lancaster JetHawks and led the team in hit-by-pitches by 22. Promoted to El Paso during the season, he went on to lead the Diablos in hit-by-pitches by ten. The next year, he led the Tucson Sidewinders in hit-by-pitches by 18, and the year after that, he led the Sidewinders in hit-by-pitches by 24.
Carlos Quentin And The Annoyingly Valuable Habit
Carlos Quentin is not afraid of getting hit by a baseball. Or he is, and he’s simply paralyzed by fear. Either way, it makes him more valuable.
In the minors, Carlos Quentin made a habit of getting hit by pitches. And so it should come as little surprise that Quentin has continued to get drilled in the majors. Since Quentin came up in 2006, no other player has been hit as often. You can read more about it over at Fangraphs, where I just found out Eno Sarris wrote about the exact same topic. Quentin is currently atop the 2011 major league leaderboard in HBPs, which is not an unfamiliar position.
Why does Quentin get hit so often? The lazy answer is "he crowds the plate," but let's compare him to teammate Paul Konerko, who does not get hit a whole lot:
Quentin
Konerko
Their feet are in the same place. Quentin isn’t wearing a suit of armor. He’s squatting a little more, drawing him closer to the zone, but it’s not like he’s hovering over the plate. You wouldn’t think, based on these images, that the first guy would get hit nearly four times as often as the second guy. But he does, so, okay.
And it helps him. In the minors, HBPs added 41 points to Quentin’s OBP. In the majors, HBPs have added 27 points to Quentin’s OBP. The league average is about six points. Instead of reaching base about 32% of the time, Quentin has reached base about 35% of the time, because of his willingness to get hit by a baseball. We all know how important it is to avoid making out; by getting hit, Quentin avoids making outs.
It’s worth noting that, so far in 2011, Quentin has been hit once per 19 trips to the plate, eclipsing his previous best of once per 24 trips to the plate in 2007. This is clearly not a habit he’s trying to change.
You could make the argument, I guess, that Quentin might be more valuable if he moved out of the way more often. That would, in theory, keep him healthier, and a healthier Carlos Quentin might be a better Carlos Quentin. But that’s just a theory, and Quentin isn’t about to change. Given the information we have, Quentin’s HBPs appear to make him more productive.
For opponents, this is all super annoying. For Quentin, though, it’s just part of what makes him who he is. It’s part of his identity, and the fact that it’s weird doesn’t make it any less real.
Incidentally, league-leading HBP'er Carlos Quentin went up against league-leading HBP'er Jon Lester back on May 30. The results:
So often, when a game puts two aces head-to-head, the result is disappointing, something less than the duel that was promised. Lester vs. Quentin, though, was exactly what it should’ve been. And then some.
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