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No. 9 Beyond the Box Score: Pitchers at the plate
Posted: Sunday April 30, 2000 04:10 AM
It's no secret that pitchers make lousy hitters. That's why they bat ninth. Most of them don't look comfortable at the plate and they usually don't hit the ball hard if they do happen to make contact. Of course, it's not their job to produce at the plate. Pitchers are not exposed to major-league pitching enough to become good hitters. A starter will get two or three at-bats every fifth day and he will be asked to bunt more often than not. There are a few exceptions, though. Mike Hampton hit .311 last year with 10 RBIs in 74 at-bats. St. Louis Cardinals rookie Rick Ankiel looks like he could be the next great-hitting pitcher. The lefty is batting .500 so far this season with a double, triple, two homers and five RBIs in 12 at-bats. Now that's helping your own cause. Maybe now people will stop comparing him to Sandy Koufax -- a .097 career hitter. The best-hitting pitchers are usually great athletes. The Pirates used to have two of the best in Rick Rhoden and Don Robinson. Rhoden hit over .300 three times and won three Silver Slugger awards. Robinson was a tough out (.231 average) and hit for power (13 career home runs). I think the Pirates scouts looked for the whole package.
Now the Braves are the team with the NL's best No. 9 hitters. Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz have won a lot of close games manufacturing their own run support with a timely sacrifice bunt or clutch hit. The former Cy Young winners even monitor each others batting average in a friendly competition. Glavine, a career .201 hitter, has won four Silver Slugger awards and he is one of just five active pitchers with at least 200 at-bats who own lifetime batting averages above .200. The others: Omar Olivares (.238), Mike Hampton (.225), Todd Stottlemyre (.208) and Orel Hershiser (.202). Maddux reached a milestone last week, recording his 1,000th career at-bat. That's quite an accomplishment for a pitcher in this era. He needed 436 starts to get there, including 93 complete games and 108 sacrifices along the way. Maddux is only the ninth pitcher in the last 25 years to accumulate 1,000 at-bats. Pitchers that can handle the bat allow a manager to do more things like get the runners moving. Also, don't forget that bunting is an art. If a pitcher can't handle the bat, he can't get a bunt down and that can kill a rally.
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