21 Responses to “More homers than strikeouts in a season (pitcher’s edition)”

1. Wayne Symes Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 8:29 am

   Dickey's 6 HR from only 3.1 innings pitched really stands out.

2. Jeff J. Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 8:47 am

   How about pitchers who hit as many or more HR in a season than they allowed? It's a longer list than you might think.

3. Andy Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 9:05 am

   There is no easy way to search for that since the PI doesn't allow us to simultaneously search the hitting and pitching databases, but I would be interested....readers please feel free to post such occurrences here.

4. Jeff J. Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 10:29 am

   @3

   I'll start the ball rolling. We should establish some minimum number of innings pitched (there have been several of these seasons with guys pitching over 300 innings), but Brooks Kieschnick, 2003.

   Reminds me of my list of catchers with a better offensive stolen base % than defensive stolen base % allowed :-O

5. John Autin Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 10:43 am

   The relevant splits are not available, but I'll go ahead and nominate Babe Ruth as the most obvious example of a pitcher who hit more HRs than he allowed. Although he likely hit some of his HRs as a fielder during the years that he was primarily a pitcher, it's still likely that he hit more as a pitcher than he allowed during most or all of these seasons:
   -- 1915: Hit 4 HRs in 42 games; allowed 3 HRs in 32 games pitched (218 IP).
   -- 1916: Hit 3 HRs in 67 games; allowed 0 HRs in 44 games pitched (324 IP).
   -- 1918: Hit 11 HRs in 95 games; allowed 1 HR in 20 games pitched (166 IP).
   -- 1919: Hit 29 HRs in 130 games; allowed 2 HRs in 17 games pitched (133 IP).

   Ruth definitely hit more HRs as a pitcher than he allowed in 2 seasons:
   -- 1921: He pitched only 2 games that year, allowing 1 HR; but in the only game he started on the mound, he slugged a pair of HRs off Detroit's Howard Ehmke, en route to a 13-8 win.
   -- 1933: In the last mound appearance of his career, the 38-year-old Ruth went the distance in a 6-5 win over Boston in the season's final game, allowing 12 hits but no HRs, while swatting his 686th round-tripper.

6. John Autin Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 10:55 am

   Walter Johnson (probably) hit more HRs as a pitcher than he allowed in the following seasons; the first one is a definite, as he had no PH or OF games:
   -- 1910: Hit 2 HRs in 45 games; allowed 1 HR in 45 games pitched, 370 IP.
   -- 1915: Hit 2 HRs in 64 games; allowed 1 HR in 47 games pitched, 337 IP.
   -- 1916: Hit 1 HR in 58 games; allowed 0 HRs in 48 games pitched, 369.2 IP. (BTW, that is the modern season record for most IP without allowing a HR.)
   -- 1919: Hit 1 HR in 56 games; allowed 0 HRs in 39 games pitched, 290 IP.

   Johnson also had multiple seasons in which he (likely) hit as many HRs as a pitcher as he allowed.

7. John Autin Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 11:06 am

   Another definite:
   -- Rube Waddell, 1908: Hit 1 HR in 43 games, all as a pitcher; allowed 0 HRs in 286 IP.

   And one more likely candidate:
   -- Frank Smith, 1904: Hit 1 HR in 41 games; allowed 0 HRs in 39 games pitched. (Smith hit just that 1 career HR in the real majors; he also allowed 0 HRs over his first 2 seasons, covering 494 IP.)

8. Andy Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 11:25 am

   Thinking of more modern HR-hitting pitchers...Owings, Hampton, Zambrano, even Newcombe...none of these guys even came close, but I would imagine some of them did have higher HR/PA rates than they allowed. A bit too busy ATM to check it myself.

9. Doug Says:
   February 25th, 2011 at 1:09 pm

   Bob Lemon in 1946 hit 1 HR in 99 PA, and allowed only 1 HR in 94 IP. His 1 HR batting did occur while pitching, in the second game of a July 29th doubleheader.

10. Doug Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    Jim Tobin in 1945 (his last season) hit 2 HR in only 27 PA, while allowing 2 HR in 58.1 IP.

11. Doug Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    Actually, Jim Tobin's 1945 stats @ 10 are for his AL time only. For full season (AL + NL), he allowed more HR than he hit. Sorry about that.

12. Doug Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    Wes Ferrell in 1931 hit 9 HR in 128 PA (wow!), while allowing only 9 HR in a whopping 276.1 IP. He came close in 1933 (7 HR hit in 161 PA, 8 HR allowed in 201 IP) and, for the record, he had 1 HR hit and 1 HR allowed in limited action in his final 1941 season.

    For his career, Ferrell allowed only 132 HR in 2623 IP, while knocking out 38 dingers. His career slash was .280/.351/.446, good for a 100 OPS+.

13. barkie Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Andy;

    I was right with you in going to Hampton. 2001.

    pitching- 31 HRs/904 BF= 1 HR per 30 BF approx
    batting- 7 HRs/88 PAs= 1 HR per 12 PA approx

14. barkie Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    Hell, Hampton was pretty close career too

    pitching- 200 HRs in 9824 BF= 1 per 45ish
    hitting- 16 in 845 PAs= 1 per 50ish

15. barkie Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 2:40 pm

    Oops, I stand corrected. Zambrano's a monster.

    Career hitting- 20 HR in 917 PAs= 1 in 45ish
    Career pitching- 133 HR in 7164 BFs= 1 in 55ish

16. Doug Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    @15. If Zambrano's the monster, then Wes Ferrell is Godzilla.

    Ferrell had career 132 HR allowed in 11568 BFs, one every 87 or 88 batters.

17. Doug Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    And Ferrell's batting (see 12) is not too shabby either.

    38 HR in 1345 PA = 1 every 35 PA.

18. barkie Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    the floor is yielded to Godzilla.

19. Jimbo Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    Considering the career RA Dickey has had, his 2010 season is really remarkable at age 35.

20. Andy Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Yeah Dickey put together a nice season in 2010...I would tend to doubt he'll repeat it this year.

21. Zim Says:
    February 25th, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Rob Radlosky appears to be the only reliever to ever give up 2 or more HR's in his first 3 major league appearances. Surprised he hung around for 4 more appearances with the '99 Twins.