Best Hitting Pichers?
 

Madison Bumgarner is definitely the best hitting pitcher in today's game, but who would you nominate as candidates for the best ever?...I mean AFTER Babe Ruth.

Try to make the candidates' hitting being while they were primarily pitchers and not just after they became position players (aka Ankiel, etc.)

Here's a few I could come up with:


BABE RUTH
Warren Spahn
Don Newcombe
Don Drysdale
Earl Wilson
Bob Gibson
Rick Ankiel
Fernando Valenzuela
Bob Caruthers

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For some reason Rick Rhoden popped up in my head.

I looked him up and during his 16 year career, he smacked 9 home runs and drove in 75 runs while maintaining respectable .238 batting avg. I cannot leave out the 38 doubles he accumulated as well.

Might not be the highest or best, but he definitely was not an automatic out.

Steve Carlton and Rick Wise were pretty good hitters.Also Don Robinson.

WaJo no slouch at the plate...
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ohnswa01.shtml

The first two names that popped in my head were Joe Wood (later became position player) and Mike Hampton. Carl Mays deserves mention as well.

In 1969 Ken Brett hit a home run in 10 at bats. They made an APBA "extra" card you could order and he was devastating. It was absurd. Rules had to be enacted limiting his use. He actually hit pretty well throughout his career, ending up with a .262 average.

Peter - I never got into APBA in spite of several friends highly recommending it. I definitely should have taken their advise. That Ken Brett 'fluke' was fascinating to read.


I forgot to add Wes Ferrell

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Was there anybody post 1920's better then Wes with the bat?

Wasn't Mike Hampton a good hitter ? I remember him hitting a few homers .

Jimmy Claxton was an impressive hitter; a .350 career batting average 1914-39, primarily for integrated semi-pro and minor league teams (confirmed 277 hits/794 at-bats). In 1929 he hit a preposterous .667 (36 for 54 at the plate in 17 recorded starts) with 13 hits in 13 consecutive at-bats. He was frequently the starting pitcher and clean-up hitter on every team he played for over that duration. Yakima Indians manager Sonny Sontheimer, once described him as, "a team in himself".

Micah Owings and Adam Loewen. Loewen doesn't seem like he was a great hitter, but he transitioned to an OF after washing out as a pitcher, hit 306 in AAA and then made the Blue Jays roster as an outfielder in 2011. Now he's pitching again.

Ken Brett was no fluke. Ranked first all time on this list.

http://www.sbnation.com/2011/12/29/2...rs-of-all-time

No Spahn Gibson or Drysdale??

there were 2-5 times in history a pitcher was the leadoff hitter

I included those three on my initial list. I'll add three more that have come to mind:

Ray Burris
Dan Schatzeder
Tim Lollar


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foggy memory
 

Didn't Tony Cloninger have 2 grand slams in the same game? Not sure I remember correctly on this, but pretty impressive at least for one game.

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Roy Hobbs. Man he was a natural.

Weird list. No Wes Ferrell or George Uhle on that list, and from bouncing around on Baseball Reference, they should be a clear #1 and #2.

Two more from the 19th Century:

Guy Hecker
Dave Foutz