Pitchers That Gave Me Trouble
Who was the best pitcher you faced-the hardest to get a hit off, and who was the easiest (Of the pitchers that were in MLB for a significant period)?
j. nichols
When I think of guys I had trouble with, I think of relievers. Guys who hide the ball well in their deliveries like Dan Quisenberry or Dennis Eckersley. These were guys who could come in for a couple innings and be dominant.
Like Papi, he might hit four bullets into the shift and come up empty because the 2nd baseman playing in short right field. He hit the ball well but it still shows up as 0 for 4 in the box score. Well, that type of stuff happened to me also. I might be 0 for 7 against a guy but I still hit him hard. It wasn’t necessarily the pitcher that I stuggled with, it was the defense.
The pitchers who I didn’t like were guys like Eck and Q who I might have faced 20 times but might have struck out 9 times. Quisenberry was toughest on me. He threw hard, hid the ball well, and came almost underhand in his delivery.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I can’t even hit guys that hide the ball like that in video games, much less in real life.
“Watch the release, not the motion.”
That only gets you so far :\
April 26th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Jim, I thought I saw you at ONYX restaurant in Springfield next to the basketball hall of fame on Friday night. Was that you?
April 27th, 2008 at 10:16 am
For what it’s worth, from baseball-reference.com ( http://tinyurl.com/6s59p7 ):
Rice vs. Quisenberry: 38 ABs, .162 batting average, 5 strikeouts
Rice vs. Eckersley: 37 ABs, .243 batting average, 15 strikeouts
Looks like Jimmy Key (.125) and Nolan Ryan (.150) were also tough.
April 27th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Jim: What about Nolan Ryan?