Who's hitting better: National League pitchers

or American League pitchers?

John Dewan's Stat of the Week

July 18, 2006

 

Surprisingly, despite their infrequent trips to the plate, American League pitchers are hitting slightly better with an OPS (on-base plus slugging) average of .364. Here are the details:

 

Pitchers Hitting—2006

League

OPS

Avg

AB

H

HR

RBI

American

.364

.138

297

41

3

18

National

.359

.138

2693

372

17

170

 

Let's look at some individual pitchers. Here are the best and worst hitters overall. Because the AL pitchers don't bat that much, we have to keep the minimum qualification down at five at-bats.

 

Best

Name

OPS

Avg

AB

H

HR

RBI

Josh Beckett

1.286

.429

7

3

1

3

Kerry Wood

1.167

.500

6

3

0

2

Jon Garland

1.000

.200

5

1

1

2

Mark Mulder

.859

.280

25

7

1

5

Russ Ortiz

.833

.333

6

2

0

2

Jorge Sosa

.827

.150

20

3

3

3

Jason Vargas

.775

.333

15

5

0

1

Livan Hernandez

.722

.270

37

10

1

6

Joe Mays

.625

.250

8

2

0

3

Brad Hennessey

.611

.278

18

5

0

0


 

Worst

Name

OPS

Avg

AB

H

HR

RBI

Kyle Davies

.000

.000

15

0

0

0

Zach Day

.000

.000

12

0

0

0

Chuck James

.000

.000

8

0

0

0

Dana Eveland

.000

.000

7

0

0

0

Danny Haren

.000

.000

7

0

0

0

Kevin Correia

.000

.000

6

0

0

0

John Koronka

.000

.000

6

0

0

0

John Maine

.000

.000

6

0

0

0

Mark Prior

.000

.000

6

0

0

0

7 tied with

.000

.000

5

0

0

0

 

Through the games of Monday, July 17.

 

 

Used with permission from John Dewan's Stat of the Week™, www.statoftheweek.com.

 

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