Best Hitting Hall of Fame Pitchers

Why? Cause the batting records are there, easily accessible on ESPN's baseball site, ripe for picking. And I can't resist arcane, completely off-the-wall stats comparisons.

Best hitters among Hall of Fame pitchers: Red Ruffing with a .269 average,98 doubles, 36 homers and 273 ribbies in 1937 AB's, some of them as a pinch hitter.

Bob Lemon with 54 doubles and an incredible 37 homers in 1183 AB's: 148 runs and 147 RBI's, .232 average.

Others with good power include Don Drysdale: 29 homers in 1169 AB; Warren Spahn: 35 homers in 1872 AB; and Bob Gibson: 24 homers in 1328 AB.

Another with a great average in Al Spalding, who played from 1871-1875 in the American Association, predecessor to the NL. He batted .313 in 1958 AB, some of them as a position player, I believe.

Amos Rusie had an incredible 29 triples in 1730 AB (third base coaches probably get fired these days for bringing pitchers on toward thrid on balls hit in the gap or down the line). Rusie also had a decent .247 average.

As for worst-hitting Hall of Fame pitchers, it's a tie between two relievers: Bruce Sutter (.088 avg., zero extra-base hits--that means a .088 slugging avg., too!--and 50 strike outs in a limited 102 AB) and Hoyt Wilhelm (identical .088 career batting avg., and all of five extra-base hits in 432 AB) Hoyt is famous for being one of a select group of major leaguers who homered in their first career at bat. Hoyt never hit another one in 1069 subsequent games!

Lowest average among career starters is Sandy Koufax: .097, followed by the .110 compiled by Nolan Ryan over 27 seasons.

Don Sutton sets the standard for power futility with no homers (and only 16 extra-base hits) in 1354 AB. Right behind him are Joe McGinnity (no homers in 1297 AB), Waite Hoyt (none in 1287 AB) and Lefty Gomez (no homers and a paltry 11 extra-base hits in 906 AB).