The Kings Of the HBP

Two years ago, Craig Biggio retired two plunkings shy of Hughie Jennings's all-time record of 287 hit-by-pitches. Biggio's 285 HBPs came over the course of 12,504 plate appearances. Last week, another talented second baseman, Philadelphia's Chase Utley, was hit for the 100th time in his career -- but it took him only a little more than 3,500 plate appearances to get there. With sustained health and production -- plus some help from the pitchers -- Utley has a shot at the all-time record before he's done. Here are the five active players who get plunked at the highest rate per plate appearance (minimum 60 HBPs, all stats through Thursday):

5.Utley, Phillies (Age: 30). 100 HBPs, 3,590 PAs (rate: 35.9 PA/HBP). He may be fifth on the list, but he's the most likely to break Jennings's record, given his age and ability. At his rate, he'd need about another 6,700 PAs (or about 10 full seasons) to top Jennings.

4.Jason Kendall, Brewers (Age: 35). 239 HBPs, 8,054 PAs (rate: 33.7 PA/HBP). He's the active leader in HBPs, but he seems an unlikely candidate to last long enough (about 1,600 more PAs -- or 2 1/2 full seasons) to reach Jennings's record.

3.Rickie Weeks, Brewers (Age: 26). 62 HBPs, 2,069 PAs (rate: 33.4 PA/HBP). He's a dark-horse candidate to break the record, but he needs to stay on the field more: He's never played more than 129 games in a season and is out for the rest of 2009 following wrist surgery in June.

2.Reed Johnson, Cubs (Age: 32). 98 HBPs, 2,842 PAs (rate: 29.0 PA/HBP). Indeed, Johnson is a prodigious plunkee, but one who lacks the sheer talent to force himself into the everyday lineup (only two seasons of 500-plus PAs) to the degree necessary to threaten the record.

1.Jason LaRue, Cardinals (Age: 35). 105 HBPs, 3,002 PAs (rate: 28.6 PA/HBP). Who knew that a humble backup catcher in his 11th season would be the most frequent HBP target in the game? Apparently, he needs to either stop diving across the plate when he bats or stop ticking off opposing pitchers.