As I wrote earlier today in a longer piece, people who are passionate about pitchers hitting can seem like religious zealots.
Which means they're probably not changing their minds. Ever.
There are some people who don't mind pitchers hitting, but also aren't zealous about it. For them, some information...
- In 2014, major-league pitchers batted .107, with a 265 OPS.
- OPS's for MLB shortstops and catchers: 677 and 687.
- From 2010 through yesterday, 41 pitchers totaled at least 200 plate appearances. Only four of them -- Zack Greinke, Mike Leake, Travis Wood, Yovani Gallardo -- have OPS's better than 455.
- In fifth place, that 455 belongs to everybody's poster boy, Madison Bumgarner.
- Same five-plus seasons, 169 major leaguers have totaled at least 2,000 plate appearances. At the very tippy-bottom of the list is Darwin Barney, with a 629 OPS: 53 points higher than Greinke's.
Pitchers just can't hit. Not in what most of us would consider a meaningful way.
And they're not going to suddenly start hitting. In fact, there's at least one excellent reason to think they'll just keep getting worse and worse:
Shame that Waino might miss the year, but at least we'll get to see other exciting offensive performances by pitchers pic.twitter.com/NstYePKp2Q
— Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) April 26, 2015
If you like watching pitchers bunt and make other outs and occasionally get hurt whilst running the bases or getting plunked by other pitchers, you should be happy with the current state of things. And I'm actually okay with that; I sort of enjoy this last difference between the two leagues.
But when the DH comes to the National League, just as it's come to nearly every other league, major or minor, college or high-school, I won't waste too many days in mourning.
