Home Run Leaders Among Pitchers
Posted by Raphy on August 26, 2009
Elias is reporting that Carlos Zambrano has become the first pitcher since Milt Papas in 1973 to hit 20 career home runs. Overall, among players who have played at least half their games at pitcher, Zambrano is now tied for 12th in career home runs. (BTW Babe Ruth had 14 home runs as a pitcher.)
+----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Wes Ferrell 38 1927 1941 19-33 548 1345 1176 175 329 57 12 208 129 0 185 0 40 0 0 2 0 .280 .351 .446 .797 *1/7 CLE-BOS-TOT-NYY-BRO-BSN 2 Bob Lemon 37 1941 1958 20-37 615 1330 1183 148 274 54 9 147 93 0 241 2 49 3 9 2 1 .232 .288 .386 .674 *1/859 CLE 3 Red Ruffing 36 1924 1947 19-42 882 2083 1937 207 521 98 13 273 97 0 266 6 43 0 13 1 1 .269 .306 .389 .695 *1/79 BOS-TOT-NYY-CHW 4 Earl Wilson 35 1959 1970 24-35 405 838 740 95 144 12 6 111 67 0 271 5 22 4 7 0 0 .195 .265 .369 .634 *1 BOS-TOT-DET 5 Warren Spahn 35 1942 1965 21-44 783 2055 1872 141 363 57 6 189 94 0 487 7 68 14 23 4 2 .194 .234 .287 .521 *1 BSN-MLN-TOT 6 Don Drysdale 29 1956 1969 19-32 547 1309 1169 96 218 26 7 113 60 0 370 5 69 6 34 0 2 .186 .228 .295 .523 *1 BRO-LAD 7 Bob Gibson 24 1959 1975 23-39 596 1489 1328 132 274 44 5 144 63 0 415 8 72 18 13 13 10 .206 .243 .301 .544 *1 STL 8 Walter Johnson 24 1907 1927 19-39 933 2517 2324 241 547 94 41 255 110 0 251 13 70 0 0 13 4 .235 .274 .342 .616 *1/897 WSH 9 Bucky Walters 23 1931 1950 22-41 715 2149 1966 227 477 99 16 234 114 0 303 5 64 0 34 12 1 .243 .286 .344 .630 *15/47 BSN-BOS-TOT-PHI-CIN-BSN 10 Reb Russell 22 1913 1923 24-34 420 1062 976 142 262 48 25 172 42 0 130 15 29 0 0 9 3 .268 .309 .436 .745 *19/7 CHW-PIT 11 Jack Harshman 21 1948 1960 20-32 258 522 424 46 76 7 0 65 72 0 119 0 18 8 8 0 0 .179 .294 .344 .638 *1/38 NYG-CHW-BAL-TOT-CLE 12 Carlos Zambrano 20 2001 2009 20-28 275 585 547 58 131 22 3 55 6 0 196 0 30 2 12 1 0 .239 .247 .400 .647 *1 CHC 13 Milt Pappas 20 1957 1973 18-34 527 1174 1073 72 132 13 3 67 36 0 510 8 52 5 13 1 0 .123 .157 .197 .354 *1/4 BAL-CIN-TOT-ATL-CHC 14 Dizzy Trout 20 1939 1957 24-42 535 1047 961 99 205 28 7 110 59 0 226 1 26 0 18 7 2 .213 .260 .319 .579 *1 DET-TOT-BAL
Among players who played 90% of their games as a pitcher, Zambrano is now third overall.
Cnt Player **HR** From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Warren Spahn 35 1942 1965 21-44 783 2055 1872 141 363 57 6 189 94 0 487 7 68 14 23 4 2 .194 .234 .287 .521 *1 BSN-MLN-TOT 2 Don Drysdale 29 1956 1969 19-32 547 1309 1169 96 218 26 7 113 60 0 370 5 69 6 34 0 2 .186 .228 .295 .523 *1 BRO-LAD 3 Carlos Zambrano 20 2001 2009 20-28 275 585 547 58 131 22 3 55 6 0 196 0 30 2 12 1 0 .239 .247 .400 .647 *1 CHC 4 Milt Pappas 20 1957 1973 18-34 527 1174 1073 72 132 13 3 67 36 0 510 8 52 5 13 1 0 .123 .157 .197 .354 *1/4 BAL-CIN-TOT-ATL-CHC 5 Dizzy Trout 20 1939 1957 24-42 535 1047 961 99 205 28 7 110 59 0 226 1 26 0 18 7 2 .213 .260 .319 .579 *1 DET-TOT-BAL
Of course Zambrano is still pretty young and is only playing in his age 28 season. Here are the leaders (50% of games as a pitcher) through 28:
Cnt Player **HR** From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Wes Ferrell 35 1927 1936 19-28 437 1089 962 152 274 46 12 173 96 0 148 0 31 0 0 2 0 .285 .350 .467 .817 *1/7 CLE-BOS 2 Don Drysdale 27 1956 1965 19-28 420 988 869 83 169 21 7 93 50 0 276 4 60 5 26 0 2 .194 .240 .328 .568 *1 BRO-LAD 3 Carlos Zambrano 20 2001 2009 20-28 275 585 547 58 131 22 3 55 6 0 196 0 30 2 12 1 0 .239 .247 .400 .647 *1 CHC 4 Red Ruffing 17 1924 1933 19-28 447 947 885 101 258 55 10 122 29 0 112 3 30 0 0 0 1 .292 .316 .434 .750 *1/79 BOS-TOT-NYY 5 Rick Wise 15 1964 1974 18-28 302 650 585 58 121 18 5 61 24 0 208 3 35 3 5 0 0 .207 .241 .332 .573 *1 PHI-STL-BOS 6 Bob Lemon 15 1941 1949 20-28 210 424 381 57 98 22 5 49 31 0 74 0 12 0 1 0 1 .257 .313 .459 .772 *1/859 CLE 7 Walter Johnson 14 1907 1916 19-28 463 1279 1184 126 253 41 26 113 53 0 103 6 36 0 0 9 3 .214 .251 .328 .579 *1/978 WSH 8 Milt Pappas 13 1957 1967 18-28 337 768 708 42 76 8 2 42 18 0 349 2 36 4 9 0 0 .107 .131 .179 .310 *1/4 BAL-CIN 9 Pedro Ramos 13 1955 1963 20-28 468 680 623 70 99 9 3 54 18 0 271 2 35 2 5 1 2 .159 .184 .246 .430 *1 WSH-MIN-CLE 10 Johnny Antonelli 13 1948 1958 18-28 297 582 528 46 93 8 2 48 23 0 140 0 28 3 11 0 0 .176 .209 .273 .482 *1 BSN-MLN-NYG-SFG 11 Hal Schumacher 13 1931 1939 20-28 316 686 651 73 142 18 2 79 18 0 141 3 14 0 12 0 0 .218 .243 .312 .555 *1/8 NYG
August 26th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
90% of games as a pitcher weeds out Ruth, who, for most of his career, was not a pitcher, and that's good. But it also weeds out Ferrell, who pitched in 374 games and played the outfield in 13 others, because he was used so much as a pinchhitter (about 160 times, it seems). I think most of the guys who fail the 90% test do it because they were used as pinchhitters, not because pitching wasn't their primary position.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Gerry - Here is what trying to do by setting the limit to 90%. Looking at the first list there are a lot of players with secondary positions. For example, Ferrell played 13 games in left field in 1933. I was curious what would happen if we tried to weed those out a bit. I first tried 100%, but that eliminated Zambrano who has pinch hit 22 times in his career. I guess I figured that 90% would be enough to allow for pinch hitting, but not playing other positions. Looking at it again, I was unsuccessful. Earl Wilson should have been number 1 in any modified list.