I fooling around with a 19th century simulation the other day. I finished the 1884 season and was poking through the stats. On initial glance, they looked pretty good. Then I noticed that the OBP leader had posted a .688, so I opened his player card to see what was up.
He had been hit by 188 pitches in 89 games.
It seems that in 1884, with the expansion of the AA in conjuction with the UA, I had way too many scrubs from the fictional minors that were in the show. The crappy pitchers were beaning the crappy batters at a truly phenomenal rate. The top ten in HBP were all over 120. The player in question only batted .206, but with all the HBP he turned out to be the MVP!
Just thought I would share an amusing anomaly that still makes me chuckle.
