The White Sox spent last year getting on base anyway they could. The White Sox as a team got hit by a pitch 79 times, tops in the American League. As for individuals on the team, Juan Pierre lead the way getting nailed a league best 21 times. The Carlos Quentin was second, getting hit 20 times.
So what lead to this? I would say Juan Pierre moved closer to the plate last season, judging by pictures of him batting for the Dodgers and him batting for the White Sox. He is about a half step closer to home plate in those photos. There's many reasons to move in the batters box, such as attempting to reach more pitches, or take away a pitcher's ability to pitch inside. The latter may have been true. It should also be noted that Juan wasn't out there in football pads like Craig Biggio used to wear, which looked ridiculous. If this is actually a team strategy, Juan clearly took it to heart. Juan Pierre had never been HBP more than 10 times in any season prior to 2010.
The Carlos Quentin is a different case though. TCQ has been HBP regularly throughout his career. He has been hit 74 times in 5 seasons. He has two 20 HBP seasons, four 10+ HBP seasons overall. He knows when he goes up to the plate that he's going to get HBP, and he's ok with it. He hasn't changed anything in the years I have been watching him at the plate. During a stretch in 2008, TCQ was HBP in 6 straight games, which is assumed to be a Major League record. During that stretch, he missed two games with pain after being HBP in his 5th straight game. He also holds the Minor League record for a season, being HBP 43 times in 2004.
No other players on the White Sox team last year were HBP more than 10 times. Gordon Beckham and Alex Rios were each HBP 7 times. All of these HBP did not lead to a high team OBP, as the Sox team OBP was just .332. When you couple this with the White Sox 922 strikeouts as a team(second fewest in MLB), you have to wonder why we did not have an OBP that ranked in the Top 10 in baseball. Standing closer to the plate does take away a pitcher's ability to pitch comfortably inside, which lead to the fewer strikeouts. However, it may not be worth people getting injured or constantly being bruised up and being less than 100%. I think it would benefit TCQ if he stepped a small margin back from the plate.
In 2007, the White Sox 2010 OBP of .332 would have ranked #19 in MLB but this year it ranked #12. You can look at this drop in overall MLB OBP as the last vestiges of steroid era baseball have been disposed. In 2007, the Yankees lead MLB with an OBP of .366, and in 2010 they lead MLB with an OBP of .350. The White Sox however, were dead last in 2007 at .318 OBP, so the new strategy has helped some in that regard. There are other factors though, such as the fact that the White Sox have better players today than they did on the 2007 team that went 72-90 and finished 4th in the Central. The OBP situation will only improve with Adam Dunn in the lineup.
Looking at the stat sheet, you can see that this spike in HBPs began in 2008. Not coincidentally, that was TCQ's first year with the Sox. In 2007, they ranked 20th in MLB with 52 HBP. In 2008-2010, they ranked in the top 7 every year in HBP. I think it would be better to just let the team hit their way on or take a walk. The White Sox only walked 467 times in 2010, which ranked 25th in MLB. They should certainly learn the art of patience, and take a walk every now and then; a walk you don't have to get HBP to accomplish.
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