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Who's hitting better—National League pitchers or American League pitchers?
Posted by John Dewan on Dec 16th 2015
July 20, 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.