Good Hitting Vintage Pitchers

[refz]

Wasn’t one of the mid-late 1960s KC/OAK A’s pitchers a pretty good hitter. Catfish or Linblad? Someone from this generic group?

[molenick]

I had totally forgotten about Terry Forster.

I will throw in Gary Peters, 1959-72 .222/19/102 807 at-bats 124-103 3.25 ERA.

Pretty good power for a pitcher...he had at least one HR each season from 1963-1971. And some of those were tough seasons to be a hitter.

[EddieP]

Ken Brett had pretty good power:

“ (Ken) Brett demonstrated what they saw when he hit a home run in four consecutive starts with the Phillies in 1973. He outhit six of eight everyday players with a .310 (27 for 87) batting average as a pitcher who also pinch-hit 16 times with the 1973 Pirates. His impressive career .262 batting average would have been much more impressive had he not spent much of his time in the American League, where the designated hitter rule prevented unimaginative managers from taking advantage of his bat when he was not pitching.

There were four Brett brothers: John, Ken/Kemer, Bobby and George. Baby brother George’s bat took him to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

“Kemer was a better hitter than George,” Stevenson said.

Bobby Brett was a fine player at El Segundo High and Cal Poly Pomona who has had a long association with professional baseball as president and owner, with his brothers, of the Spokane Indians of the Northwest League and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League.

“Kemer was a natural,” he said. “He could pick up a bat and swing. George had to work at it.”

What about big brother as Ohtani before Ohtani?

Bobby did not blink or hesitate.

“There is no doubt,” he said.”

https://www.mlb.com/video/the-legend...ge_video-share

[molenick]

Caruthers is a great 19th century example. I am not sure how to group him because he was more than a good hitting pitcher, he was a two-way player (366 games in OF, 340 as a pitcher).

Along those lines I will add Guy Hecker as a 19th century two-way player. Here are some of Hecker's accomplishments:

--175-146 2.93 in 336 games as a pitcher
--19/278/.282 as a batter, including 322 games at first and 75 in the outfield
--Led the AA in several pitching categories in 1884 (52 wins, 1.80 ERA, 385 strikeouts, 72 complete games)
--Threw a no-hitter in 1882
--Led the AA in batting with .341 in 1886

And there is this, as per SABR:

[David W]

Not true vintage, but uou can win some money with this trivia question -

Who holds the Major League Record for highest batting average, minimum 600 games played?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...orstte01.shtml