OT: Madison Bumgarner
- Thread starter PennStateNate
- Start date
I always forget he pitched. Anyone know his hitting stats as a Pitcher?
SF announcers feel if Bumgarner stays in the NL, he will shatter a lot of hitting records for a pitcher.
Ferguson Jenkins was a pretty good hitting pitcher.....Bob Buhl may have been the worst I ever saw.
Don Drysdale was a pretty good hitting pitcher too. 29 homeruns in his career.
One thing that you have to consider, is that Ruth started his career during the dead ball era. The season HR record of 27 stood for 35 years before he broke it with 29 in 1919. He always played some games at other positions when he was with the Red Sox, but '18 & '19 were the only years where he had more games at other positions than pitcher. He had 11 & 29 HR in 95 & 130 games while pitching in 20 & 17 games. BA of .300 & .322.
Not including his first season ( 5 games in 1914), '15, '16 & '17 was when he was mostly a pitcher and he hit 4, 3 & 2 HR in 42, 67 & 52 games (32, 44 & 41 as a pitcher) BA of .315, .272 & .325.
It's always tough to compare across different eras. For example, Ruth pitched 104 complete games in FIVE seasons. 105 in six if you count his first year when he only appeared in 5 games, pitching 4.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml
Not including his first season ( 5 games in 1914), '15, '16 & '17 was when he was mostly a pitcher and he hit 4, 3 & 2 HR in 42, 67 & 52 games (32, 44 & 41 as a pitcher) BA of .315, .272 & .325.
It's always tough to compare across different eras. For example, Ruth pitched 104 complete games in FIVE seasons. 105 in six if you count his first year when he only appeared in 5 games, pitching 4.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml
Don Newcomb of the Dodgers was also a very good hitting pitcher. He often batted higher than ninth and pinch hit many times.
Go to www.baseball-reference.com to look them up. Babe Ruth is the greatest player of all time, all eras.
This is why the National League game is vastly superior to the Junior Circuit. If you can swing the bat and do something offensively, you have a decided advantage against another pitcher who is helpless. Maybe you get to stay in for some more innings in a tie game vs. a guy who has no chance and needs pinch hit for. Over a career you can build up a bunch of extra wins that way.
Your skills are rewarded or penalized because you have to play the game, which is how it should be.
Your skills are rewarded or penalized because you have to play the game, which is how it should be.
Slow pitch softball is played with ten players. Baseball is played with nine.
My closest friend of 35 years is a true seamhead and Yankees fan (he converted me to the Yanks as my AL team after more than a few summer nights in the Bronx). We argue about this all the time and I still cannot convince him that he is completely out to lunch.
He says chicks dig the longball and nobody buys a ticket to watch the pitcher strike out. Well when you have Bumgardner or Jim Kaat or Drysdale or Newk or Bob Gibson - they don't strike out. Why? Because they're ballplayers. The second thing is, let's say you're a team with Manny Mota. You lose the benefit of having him with the DH because there is less pinch hitting.
On the other hand, you get an unfair boost by having some old fat guy who has lost every single other skill except getting the bat around. Fine. You want to play this washed-up guy, then he has to take the field. Stick him out there and if he runs like an anvil and can't catch a cold, live with it.
The game is my 9 vs your 9. Abner Doubleday would be turning over in his grave.
Although I am not as against the DH as I used to be,I still prefer the National League game. I just think with inter league play that both leagues need the same rules. The hitting among the pitchers would improve significantly if both leagues had their pitchers hit. You would have pitchers hitting all the way through the minor leagues. Most pitchers in the majors didn't just pitch growing up. Pitchers like Tim Wakefield, Brad Lincoln, and Eric Milton were great hitters in college. Mike Leake, Clayton Kershaw,and Zack Grienke are other pitchers who can also swing the bat. Having said all of this,there is no way the Players Union will ever allow the DH to be removed in the American League so I think it is inevitable that the National League will eventually have the DH.
The Players Union can go to hell on a rocket sled. Less jobs for fat over the hill guys, more jobs for pitchers. Still 25 guys - so they're still getting their dues check.
But you're absolutely right - they'll never get rid of the DH in the AL. As for the rules in interleague, they're fine as they stand. In the AL park you play beer-league softball, in the NL you play real baseball.
The day they go to the DH in the National League, I'm done. I survived steroids and three players strikes (and an umpire strike; too bad they came back) but I will never survive ruining the National League. What's next? Four strikes and you go to instant replay?
