Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
ESPN's lead story on their baseball site is about how well pitchers are hitting this season. A total of ten home runs has been hit by pitchers so far this season. It probably would go unnoticed but for the fact that it exceeds the Tigers' total for April by one dinger. Tim Kurkjian writes that "pitchers are getting better as hitters." He supports his point with the top hitting pitchers based on 12 at-bats. Twelve at-bats? That's three games. I find that a bit of a small sample myself.
Kirkjian continues:
Pitcher's hit because today's baseball culture is all about hitting. It has been that way for 10 years. All over the country, kids are going to batting cages and relentlessly pumping tokens into pitching machines.
I'm sorry, but wasn't just a year or two ago that the popular cry was that pitchers couldn't even bunt anymore, and the designated hitter should become universal? Is this simply the media poucing on an aberration to rid the majors of the DH menace? Couldn't this just be an meaningless, early-season aberration?
I thought I would find out if there was something to the theory. Here is a table of pitcher battings stats per decade (for all players who pitched exclusively or at least appeared in more than 2 games to filter out position players throwing mop-up innings):
Decade BA OBP SLUG OPS HR/AB 1870s .247 .261 .300 .561 0.14% 1880s .227 .267 .300 .567 0.52% 1890s .227 .285 .298 .583 0.50% 1900s .187 .230 .236 .466 0.25% 1910s .183 .232 .234 .466 0.30% 1920s .205 .246 .262 .507 0.47% 1930s .194 .235 .244 .478 0.47% 1940s .180 .223 .221 .444 0.37% 1950s .169 .216 .219 .434 0.69% 1960s .144 .185 .186 .371 0.63% 1970s .150 .190 .190 .380 0.51% 1980s .146 .182 .186 .368 0.45% 1990s .145 .181 .182 .364 0.38% 2000s .146 .179 .189 .368 0.54%
Apparently due to specialization, pitchers went from acceptable hitters early on very quickly to poor ones by the turn of the century, and finally by the Sixties to the horrendous ones that they are today. I find little to support the contention that pitchers have started to hit better in the last ten years. Their stats in the Nineties and the current decade (whatever we call it) are almost identical. Home run numbers are up, but one must wonder if that is just due to the increase in homers being today.
Let's check out the number above represented as percentages of the overall stats for all players, something akin to Baseball-Reference's adjusted stats (except we don't have the time to adjust all of the stats by park before summing):
Decade BA% OBP% SLUG% OPS% HR/AB% 1870s 91.94% 92.50% 90.01% 91.15% 63.08% 1880s 90.19% 89.63% 88.80% 89.19% 84.63% 1890s 82.54% 82.64% 80.76% 81.67% 70.34% 1900s 73.67% 73.96% 71.95% 72.93% 61.87% 1910s 71.71% 72.21% 69.24% 70.69% 58.55% 1920s 71.88% 70.91% 65.96% 68.27% 40.40% 1930s 69.55% 68.53% 61.07% 64.51% 29.88% 1940s 69.06% 67.24% 60.19% 63.54% 24.49% 1950s 65.28% 65.12% 55.85% 60.10% 27.71% 1960s 57.77% 58.83% 49.77% 53.91% 26.17% 1970s 58.61% 58.80% 50.32% 54.24% 23.21% 1980s 56.54% 56.36% 47.93% 51.76% 19.05% 1990s 54.93% 54.37% 44.48% 48.92% 13.56% 2000s 55.09% 53.28% 44.23% 48.22% 16.71%
Actually, the home run numbers in the Aughts have gone up slightly relative to the overall home run frequency, but it is still the second-lowest decade. It just happens to follow the Nineties, the lowest decade.
However, it may be something that is being masking by viewing the data per decade. Maybe if we looked at the last thirty years, we would find more to support pitchers' improvement at the plate:
Year BA OBP SLUG OPS HR/AB 1970 .146 .188 .192 .380 0.72% 1971 .149 .189 .188 .377 0.63% 1972 .146 .185 .184 .368 0.51% 1973 .150 .191 .189 .380 0.57% 1974 .165 .208 .204 .412 0.38% 1975 .150 .196 .181 .377 0.21% 1976 .149 .191 .181 .371 0.27% 1977 .159 .197 .205 .402 0.69% 1978 .148 .183 .188 .370 0.35% 1979 .151 .183 .191 .374 0.40% 1980 .162 .201 .204 .405 0.38% 1981 .150 .190 .187 .377 0.32% 1982 .151 .184 .190 .375 0.45% 1983 .146 .180 .180 .360 0.38% 1984 .147 .180 .182 .362 0.41% 1985 .139 .178 .176 .354 0.47% 1986 .144 .181 .191 .372 0.62% 1987 .151 .188 .199 .387 0.68% 1988 .134 .164 .169 .334 0.34% 1989 .139 .177 .178 .355 0.42% 1990 .138 .173 .171 .344 0.36% 1991 .145 .188 .176 .364 0.31% 1992 .138 .166 .171 .337 0.29% 1993 .151 .182 .185 .367 0.36% 1994 .154 .185 .189 .374 0.21% 1995 .148 .186 .192 .378 0.48% 1996 .148 .184 .189 .373 0.47% 1997 .138 .175 .175 .350 0.36% 1998 .146 .186 .183 .369 0.36% 1999 .147 .187 .189 .376 0.52% 2000 .147 .184 .192 .375 0.60% 2001 .143 .175 .183 .358 0.51% 2002 .148 .179 .191 .370 0.51%
Well, everything has stayed about the same since 1994. However, home runs have increased.
Now, let's look at the numbers by percentage of all of the batters' stats to see if that is just an aberration:
Year BA% OBP% SLUG% OPS% HR/AB% 1970 57.49% 57.83% 49.81% 53.48% 27.81% 1971 59.65% 59.64% 51.48% 55.27% 28.93% 1972 59.99% 59.42% 51.89% 55.41% 25.08% 1973 58.29% 58.74% 49.92% 53.99% 24.17% 1974 64.28% 64.17% 55.37% 59.49% 19.07% 1975 58.12% 59.89% 48.41% 53.77% 10.47% 1976 58.52% 59.55% 50.05% 54.51% 15.71% 1977 60.10% 59.72% 51.10% 54.99% 27.20% 1978 57.55% 56.48% 49.58% 52.76% 16.92% 1979 56.70% 55.47% 48.08% 51.43% 16.50% 1980 61.04% 61.61% 52.70% 56.77% 17.56% 1981 58.58% 59.39% 50.64% 54.71% 17.07% 1982 57.73% 56.85% 48.98% 52.56% 19.09% 1983 56.15% 55.46% 46.27% 50.45% 16.58% 1984 56.70% 55.71% 47.32% 51.15% 17.91% 1985 54.26% 55.13% 45.01% 49.59% 18.59% 1986 56.00% 55.53% 48.43% 51.64% 23.17% 1987 57.37% 56.84% 47.87% 51.85% 21.86% 1988 52.53% 51.74% 44.80% 47.97% 15.38% 1989 54.70% 55.53% 47.31% 51.09% 19.58% 1990 53.69% 53.16% 44.47% 48.44% 15.63% 1991 56.72% 58.15% 45.79% 51.44% 12.94% 1992 53.94% 51.58% 45.21% 48.14% 13.73% 1993 57.12% 54.83% 45.92% 49.95% 13.71% 1994 57.19% 54.54% 44.64% 49.04% 6.90% 1995 55.58% 55.04% 46.05% 50.07% 16.46% 1996 54.74% 54.03% 44.27% 48.60% 14.82% 1997 51.72% 51.93% 41.76% 46.29% 12.00% 1998 54.81% 55.61% 43.56% 48.91% 12.01% 1999 54.27% 54.31% 43.60% 48.34% 15.65% 2000 54.49% 53.25% 43.81% 47.97% 17.69% 2001 54.34% 52.54% 42.99% 47.17% 15.52% 2002 56.47% 54.02% 45.94% 49.52% 16.85%
Well, pitchers are apparently hitting more home runs today than they were in 1994. However, we are talking about a historic low for pitchers' batting. Pitchers actually hit fewer home runs today relative to all batters than they did 30 years ago. Besides, OPS is down for the last ten years as compared to thirty years ago.
My conclusion is that pitchers are apparently hitting more home runs of late (since 1999) relative to all batters, but it is still historically low.
Rob Neyer then lists his all-time great hitting pitchers. He concludes that there are some good-hitting pitchers today, but no Babe Ruths or Wes Ferrells in the bunch.
His list is good, but I thought of two others who should have made it: Rube Bressler and Smokey Joe Wood, both of whom converted from pitcher to the outfield. I thought it might be interesting to see the all-time leaders for pitchers to shed a bit more light on things. (Note that I considered only batters with 100 ABs or more and 50 pitching appearance or more over their careers-i.e., no Jimmie Foxx.).
OK, here are the all-time leaders first by batting average:
Name BA Babe Ruth .342 George Van Haltren .316 Al Spalding .313 Walter Thornton .312 Elmer Smith .310 Otis Stocksdale .310 Erv Brame .306 Cy Seymour .303 Rube Bressler .301 Tom Parrott .301 Art Reinhart .301 Bert Inks .300
Now, the leaders by home runs:
Name HR Babe Ruth 714 Johnny Lindell 72 George Van Haltren 69 Cy Seymour 52 Wes Ferrell 38 Elmer Smith 37 Bob Lemon 37 Red Ruffing 36 Jack Stivetts 35 Earl Wilson 35 Warren Spahn 35 Bobby Wallace 34 Rube Bressler 32 Dave Foutz 31
Now by HR per AB:
Name HR/AB Babe Ruth 8.50% Jack Harshman 4.95% Roric Harrison 4.84% Earl Wilson 4.73% Mikeorkins 4.20% Lou Sleater 3.88% Clint Hartung 3.70% Tim Lollar 3.46% Jerry Casale 3.45% Wes Ferrell 3.23% Bob Lemon 3.13% Danny Murphy 3.08% Wayland Dean 3.06%
Lollar probably should have made Neyer's list. Casale was a modern player, but only had 116 at-bats.
Finally, here are the all-time leaders by OPS:
Name OPS Babe Ruth 1.164 Elmer Smith .832 George Van Haltren .802 Wes Ferrell .797 Rube Bressler .791 Bob Caruthers .791 Jack Stivetts .783 Johnny Lindell .773 Walter Thornton .771 Doc Crandall .770 Chad Kimsey .768 Joe Wood .768 Tom Parrott .768 Erv Brame .755 Cy Seymour .752 Reb Russell .745 Jimmy Zinn .745 Ralph Winegarner .735 Charlie Ferguson .735 Ad Gumbert .731 Walt Kinney .727 Fred Klobedanz .726 Otis Stocksdale .724 Snake Wiltse .724 George Uhle .722 Jack Bentley .722 Schoolboy Rowe .710 Al Spalding .705 Don Newcombe .705 Dave Foutz .701
Here are a lot of 19th-century pitchers in there. Here are the "modern" pitcher-batters:
Johnny Lindell came up during World War II with the Yankees as a pitcher, quickly converted to an outfielder, and then finished his career as a pitcher.
Doc Crandall, who is on a short list of the "first" relief pitchers, was a contemporary of Ruth's. He played middle infield occasionally throughout his career, probably more for his bat (OPS 20% than league average) than his markedly subpar glove.
Chad Kimsey was a good-hitting pitcher for the Browns in the Thirties.
Erv Brame was a decent-hitting pitcher for the Pirates in the late Twenties and early Thirties.
Reb Russell was a pitcher in the 1910s who converted to outfielder in the Twenties for the White Sox. He had an OPS 76% better than the league average in his first season as an outfielder.
Jimmy Zinn was a decent-hitting journeyman pitcher in the Twneties.
Ralph Winegarner was a poor-man's Bob Lemon: he came up in 1930 as third baseman, went back down for a couple of years, and returned to the majors as a pitcher.
Walt Kinney was a good hitter for the A's in the early Twenties. He also made a handful of appearances in the outfield.
George Uhle was a decent hitter who won 200 games in the Twenties and Thirties. He made Neyer's list.
Jack Bentley was a backup pitcher for McGraw's Giants in 1910s. He played one year for the Phillies almost exclusively as a first baseman. And then finished his career as a pitcher for the Giants again.
Schoolboy Rowe and Don Newcombe were honorable mentions on Neyer's list.
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