MLB’s Best Hitting Pitchers That Aren’t Shohei Ohtani (2018)

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Traditional baseball folks love the National League. Folks who love offense tend to side with the DH and the American League. Truth be told, we should just enjoy the entire league but this is the way things go. Whichever way you go, one thing is for sure: It’s fun to watch pitchers step into the batter’s box. I mean, who can forget Bartolo Colon‘s first-ever home run in 2016? For everyone except James Shields, that clip is pure gold.

This year, there has been 69 different pitchers with at least 20 at-bats. Only six — not counting Shohei Ohtani — are hitting above .200 while 13 have struck out at least 20 times. It’s not easy to hit elite pitching when you’re doing it once every five days. One look at the pitcher hitting stats and that’s very, very clear. With that said, though, there’s a few guys who can rake that aren’t named Ohtani.

MLB Pitchers Hitting Above .200 (min 20 AB)

*As of 7/29/18

  1. German Marquez, COL (13-for-36, .361 BA, 1 HR)
  2. Max Scherzer, WSH (13-for-47, .277 BA, 0 HR)
  3. Zack Greinke, ARI (11-for-43, .256 BA, 0 HR)
  4. Carlos Martinez, STL (8-for-32, .250 BA, 1 HR)
  5. Patrick Corbin, ARI (9-for-41, .220 BA, 0 HR)
  6. Zack Wheeler, NYM (7-for-33, .212 BA, 0 HR)

Marquez hit just .157 (8-for-51) in his first two seasons before breaking out this year. It should be noted that his only home run came off of infielder Daniel Descalso — how wild is that?

Besides being a solid stick, Grienke has the most stolen bases of any pitcher (including Ohtani) with three. That stat, in my opinion, is probably the most impressive of all.

One guy who didn’t make the list is Michael Lorenzen of Cincinnati. Had he been a starter, he would have qualified but instead, he’s stuck at 14 at-bats this year. But he’s a reliever, most relievers get pinch-hit for on the regular. Lorenzen, however, gets the green light and has even pinch-hit nine times this year. Of his 14 at-bats, he has three home runs. That’s insane! Oh yeah, all three of his dingers came in the same week. Roll the tape.

Two more that deserve some credit are Dan Straily (MIA) and Clayton Kershaw (LAD). Both have walked five times this year (and are hitting over .180). Walks for pitchers are a tell-tale sign that they are comfortable in the box and generally know what they’re doing.

And because we’ve shed some light on the best hitting pitchers, here are a few of the worst hitting pitchers:

Some of the Worst Hitting Pitchers in 2018

*As of 7/29/18

  • Mike Foltynewicz, ATL (2-for-35, .056 BA, 26 SO, 0 BB)
  • Jose Urena, MIA (1-for-30, .033 BA, 22 SO, 0 BB)
  • Ivan Nova, PIT (1-for-40, .025 BA, 20 SO, 0 BB)
  • Sal Romano, CIN (1-for-29, .034 BA, 20 SO, 0 BB)
  • Robbie Ray, ARI (0-for-21, .000, 12 SO, 0 BB)

For starters, none of these five guys have walked this year. Foltynewicz has the most strikeouts (besides Ohtani) while Ray has the most at-bats without a hit.

Complete pitcher hitting stats can be found here.

CATEGORY: MLB