Pitchers trying to bat becomes more painful to watch.
Thankfully, the kid is recovering well. Seriously, though, this made me wonder if there is there any data out there to prove or deny that pitchers produce more hazardous foul balls. If so, the DH rule could become popular among the family values and safety-oriented crowd (as it is with the assimilate both leagues one way or the other crowd).
over 3 years ago
Stat Ninja
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doubtful
Given that pitchers make up 1/9 of 1/2 of games (plus interleague minus pinch hitters), and make solid contact a lot less frequently than the rest of batters, I really doubt that they produce a significant amount of hard hit foul balls.
Pitchers batting
No argument that they would produce a minority of hard hit foul balls, but since pitchers’ contact skills, on average, aren’t nearly as developed, wouldn’t that naturally generate more foul balls by itself?
possibly
But here’s the thing, a good chunk of pitchers are from the Pedro school of batting (stand there and watch), a lot of times they are sac bunting, so of the ABs that are left over I just don’t think there are that many chances to hit the kind of foul balls line drive into the crowd, since it’s a relatively rare type of foul ball compared to other types. But you’re talking about data…I got nothin, just speculation.
Yeah
I looked for data and didn’t find much with pitchers batting. MVN’s “pizza cutter” had an interesting three-part series about what foul balls tell about batters, the pitchers (while pitching), etc..
I was shocked to see that Lily’s baseball-reference page only showed ONE foul ball as a batter in his career. I couldn’t tell if that meant 1 hit to and caught in foul territory, so you may well be right.
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