StaTuesday: Twins' pitchers see mixed results at the plate
With the Minnesota Twins playing at the Atlanta Braves -- and later this season at the New York Mets -- it means we'll see that rarity in this day and age: American League pitchers batting.
Since the advent of the designated hitter in the AL in 1973, 69 Twins pitchers have stepped to the plate. The majority -- 40 -- have a career .000 batting average (and a large percentage of those at-bats ended in a strikeout).
Of the .000 hitters, Phil Hughes, who is still on the Twins but is out for the season, has the most plate appearances, with 11. He is 0 for 11 with six strikeouts.
The worst .000 hitter -- if we can claim such a thing -- might be Sam Deduno, who when he played for the Twins from 2012-14 struck out in all five of his at-bats, although he did have one sacrifice hit. Nevertheless, that's the most at-bats for a pitcher who had a 1:1 strikeout-to-AB ratio. Deduno was claimed off waivers by Houston late in 2014 and in his only at-bat with the Astros he, of course, singled. Ricky Nolasco was a close second, going 0 for 7 with six strikeouts . . . and, amazingly, a walk.
Three Twins pitchers went to bat and came back without, technically, having a .000 average. Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch both had sacrifice bunts in their only plate appearance while Bobby Keppel, who pitched in 37 games in 2009, walked. Keppel's 1.000 on-base percentage ties him for the best OBP among Minnesota pitchers with Bobby Korecky (16 games in 2008), who singled in his only at-bat. Korecky's 1.000 batting average and 2.000 OPS are also Twins bests since 1973, albeit he had just the one time up.
Korekcy is tied for the best slugging percentage by a Twins pitcher in the DH era with Sean Bergman, who went 1 for 2 with a double in 2000.
Six other Twins pitchers have a .500 batting average since 1973. Livan Hernandez (2008), Mike Morgan (1998), Dan Perkins (1999) and Juan Rincon (2001-08) all went 1 for 2. Mike Pelfrey (2013-15) and Tommy Milone (2014-active) both are 2 for 4 and each with two singles, but we'll give the edge here to Milone since both of Pelfrey's outs are strikeouts while Milone has one K. Of course, Milone could help or hurt his cause if he gets to bat this season.
Who is the best-hitting Twins pitcher since 1973? Eric Milton (1998-2003) batted .300 with a .333 on-base percentage in 21 plate appearances, which is the highest batting average for anyone with over four plate appearances.
However, we think that honor should be bestowed upon Johan Santana. In the DH era, Santana has the most hits (8), runs (3 -- no one else has more than 1) and RBI (3) for a Minnesota pitcher. He batted a respectable .258 and struck out only four times in 32 plate appearances. Santana also owns the only triple by a Twins pitcher in this span -- no one has hit a home run -- and one of eight doubles (the others: Scott Baker, Bergman, Kevin Correia, Kyle Lohse, Joe Mays, J.C. Romero and Kevin Slowey). Of course, on the down side, Santana also grounded into a double play (one of seven hit into by a Twins pitcher since '73), but we're willing to overlook that.
While Santana has the most at-bats (31), Brad Radke (1995-2006) had the most plate appearances with 34 (he had three hits, a .103 average). Radke also is tied for the most strikeouts with nine, Scott Baker (2005-11) and Francisco Liriano (2005-12) sharing that mark.
If you are curious about pre-DH pitchers hitting, Jim Kaat (1961-73) had the most plate appearances (1,088), at-bats (995), hits (191), runs (99), RBI (88), walks (55 -- including one intentional!), strikeouts (289), doubles (35), home runs (14) and stolen bases (4) and is tied with Dave Boswell (1964-70) for most triples (4). Kaat also hit the last homer by a Twins pitcher, July 6, 1972.
Luis Tiant (1970), who is the only other Twins pitcher to steal a base, owns the best batting average for anyone with 10 or more plate appearances. In his lone season in Minnesota, Tiant batted .406 (13 for 32).
Dave Heller is the author of the upcoming book Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth's Shadow as well as Facing Ted Williams Players from the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived and As Good As It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns
