Top three post 1960 hitting pitchers

Goldenage

1.
2.
3.

thisistheshow

Number one has to be Ohtani, right?

ScoobyDoo2

Shohei, MadBum, Greinke

Justacommeman

Earl Wilson had 35 home runs during a stretch in the 60's. Seven in one season

m

Hydrant

Don Drysdale hit 29 career homers and he hit 7 homers in 2 separate seasons. In 1965 he was the only Dodger to hit above .300. IMO he was the best hitter on that team..,...but that's not saying much.

Goldenage

@Hydrant said:
Don Drysdale hit 29 career homers and he hit 7 homers in 2 separate seasons. In 1965 he was the only Dodger to hit above .300. IMO he was the best hitter on that team..,...but that's not saying much.

How the Dodgers got their name is interesting

PaulMaul

Rick Wise was a good hitter. In 1971 he had 23 hits including 6 HRs and 15 RBI in 97 AB. In fact he hit two homers during his no hitter that year! Only one to ever do that.

Hydrant

@Goldenage said:

@Hydrant said:

>

How the Dodgers got their name is interesting

Yes. I think the name of the team was the Blue Jays or the Blue Birds during the 1890's and early 20th. Century. The fans of the team were known as the "Dodgers" because they had to dodge the trolly cars that ran along the street in front of the ballpark in order to get into the game. At some point the team adopted the nickname of the fans and became...... The Dodgers!

Alfonz24

Mike Hampton 16 and Carlos Zambrano 24

LandrysFedora

Micah Owings was a good hitter with the D-Backs.

halosfan

Fernando!

dallasactuary

Earl Wilson was in a class by himself, but Bob Gibson was also very good. Gibby even hit a HR in two World Series.

But for a single season, Adam Wainwright in 2016 was amazing. He only had 69 plate appearances, but if you multiply his numbers by 9 to get a full season equivalent (621 PAs) you get 63 doubles, 18 HR, and 162 RBI! It was the RBI that were truly amazing; with RISP, Wainwright hit .400 and slugged .850!!!

streeter

IDK about lifetime achievements but Atlanta had Tony Cloninger(SP?).

In ONE GAME in the 60's he had a single AND two grand slams against the Giants. 9 ribbies.
Career game.

The Giants also had a pitcher Rick Reuschal(sp?) who was used as a pinch hitter. AKA, 'Big Daddy'

daltex

So, like with any such exercise, we need to define our terms. By any measure, Jose Canseco (1 inning in 1993) would have to be considered a top hitter. Also, almost all pitchers have negative value at the plate, even most of those mentioned above. Thus, the likes of the immortal Bryan Ward who had a walk in his only plate appearance count as elite hitters.

So I'm restricting my universe to those players who had at least 50 appearances as a pitcher from 1960 to 1921 and 25 plate appearances in that time. That eliminates those who weren't "real" pitchers and those who had good hitting statistics by a complete fluke.

So there are only four pitchers who fit those three criteria with positive Batting Runs. There is a distinct break between each pair. In order:

Terry Forster
Ken Tatum
Owings
Mike Stanton

When Ohtani gets to 50 games he'll almost certainly shoot to the top of the list.

Incidentally, the worst six by this measure are all HoFers: Maddux, Niekro, Sutton, Perry, Carlton, and Glavine. Jerry Koosman is 7th. These guys all have in common that they pitched in the NL for a very long time. I make no claim that these guys were the worst hitting pitchers, just that while batting they hurt their teams the most. There might have been others who were worse but didn't get the chance to hurt their teams as much.

On an all time basis, only Grove, Young, and some guy named Gus Weyhing were worse than Maddux. Grove must have been astonishingly bad: a .418 OPS in the live ball era. Weyhing was worst of all time.