 |
 |
 |
|
How good a hitter is Arizona pitcher Micah Owings?
Good enough to debunk the myth that, why, there's just nothing a poor ol' pitcher can do at the plate except bat his eyes at the umpire and hope for a walk.
|
|
| D-Backs pitcher Micah Owings hit a pinch-hit HR on Wednesday. (AP) |
Too good, really, for his own good.
There he was pulling into second base with a double last Saturday in San Diego after punching his third hit of the game, whereupon he stepped on the bag wrong and turned his ankle. Scary moment, to be sure, because at 4-0 with a 3.48 ERA, Owings is even more valuable to the Diamondbacks on the mound than he is at the plate.
And he's hitting .421 (8-for-19) with a .474 on-base percentage, while slugging .632.
"He might start on some teams if he wasn't a pitcher," San Diego's Greg Maddux says.
Only a month into the season, it's already been quite a year for pitchers at the plate:
• Owings, who earned the Silver Slugger at his position in 2007 (the Diamondbacks handed out bobblehead dolls of him with a bat earlier this month), can out-hit several position players.
• San Diego's Jake Peavy started Sunday's game with a .300 batting average -- the only Padre in a decrepit lineup that day to be hitting .300 or better. St. Louis' Adam Wainwright is at .313 with a homer, Philadelphia's Cole Hamels is at .313 and the Dodgers' Derek Lowe, a lifetime .120 hitter, is off to a .333 start.
• Milwaukee manager Ned Yost and St. Louis skipper Tony La Russa -- for different reasons -- are batting their pitchers in the eighth spot in the lineup.
See what fun those American League pitchers (the ones who soon will be forced at near-gunpoint to pick up bats in preparation for another year of interleague play) are missing?
While the DH is in its 38th season in the AL (that long already?!), there are a handful of NL pitchers who are channeling the old days when pitchers took pride in their bats and injected intrigue into many plate appearances.
