Best Hitting Pitchers of All Time, by WAR

by adarowski on Jul 28, 2010 6:00 PM EDT

I couldn't help but notice that Yovani Gallardo's WAR (Rally WAR from Baseball-Reference) is already at 0.7 this season. In 44 plate appearances. Yikes. Were that sustainable over 600 PA, we're talking a 9.5 WAR season. Gallardo already has 1.4 career WAR at the plate in 161 PA (that comes out to 5.2 WAR per 600 PA). Small sample, but impressive nonetheless.

That got me wondering who the top pitchers of all time were in terms of offensive WAR (it's technically "Position Player WAR", but Total Zone data doesn't exist for pitchers). Now that Baseball-Reference and it's wonderful Play Index has Rally's WAR, this type of search is possible. Here are the Top 20:

Rk	Player	WAR	PA	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Red Ruffing	13.7	2083	882	1937	207	521	98	13	36	273	97	266	.269	.306	.389	.695
2	Walter Johnson	12.1	2517	934	2324	241	547	94	41	24	255	110	251	.235	.274	.342	.616
3	Wes Ferrell	12.0	1345	548	1176	175	329	57	12	38	208	129	185	.280	.351	.446	.797
4	George Mullin	11.7	1685	615	1531	163	401	70	23	3	137	122	21	.262	.319	.344	.663
5	George Uhle	11.3	1498	722	1360	172	393	60	21	9	187	98	112	.289	.339	.384	.722
6	Don Newcombe	9.0	988	452	878	94	238	33	3	15	108	87	147	.271	.338	.367	.705
7	Bob Lemon	8.6	1330	615	1183	148	274	54	9	37	147	93	241	.232	.288	.386	.674
8	Schoolboy Rowe	8.2	1022	491	909	116	239	36	9	18	153	86	157	.263	.328	.382	.710
9	Carl Mays	8.0	1199	502	1085	113	291	32	21	5	110	66	116	.268	.313	.350	.663
10	Mike Hampton	7.3	845	438	725	97	178	22	5	16	79	47	195	.246	.294	.356	.650
11	Doc Crandall	6.6	1033	500	887	109	253	35	19	9	126	118	94	.285	.372	.398	.770
12	Earl Wilson	6.4	838	405	740	95	144	12	6	35	111	67	271	.195	.265	.369	.634
13	Bucky Walters	6.3	2149	715	1966	227	477	99	16	23	234	114	303	.243	.286	.344	.630
14	Early Wynn	6.3	1903	796	1704	136	365	59	5	17	173	141	330	.214	.274	.285	.559
15	Bob Gibson	6.2	1489	596	1328	132	274	44	5	24	144	63	415	.206	.243	.301	.545
16	Jim Tobin	5.7	884	396	796	81	183	35	3	17	102	80	162	.230	.303	.345	.648
17	Burleigh Grimes	5.6	1685	632	1535	157	380	62	11	2	168	69	241	.248	.282	.306	.588
18	Gary Peters	5.3	875	450	807	86	179	31	7	19	102	29	172	.222	.253	.348	.601
19	Doc White	5.2	1516	548	1283	147	278	22	13	2	75	147	1	.217	.298	.259	.556
20	Reb Russell	5.1	1062	422	976	141	262	48	25	22	172	42	130	.268	.309	.436	.745

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/28/2010.

Red Ruffing is already in the Hall of Fame for his 53.6 WAR on the mound. But he was worth an additional 13.7 wins at the plate! How about Walter Johnson? His 127.7 WAR as a pitcher get a boost from his 12.1 wins at the plate. Interesting to see Mike Hampton crack the Top 10 with 7.3 WAR in 845 PA (or 5.2 WAR per 600 PA).

Where does Gallardo rank all time? He's already moving into the Top 150 hitting pitchers ever. And he's got a long way to go.

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Comments

Babe Ruth should be #1.

by speckops on Jul 28, 2010 7:44 PM EDT reply actions

Should have mentioned...

That this list was built from players who spent >50% of their games at pitcher.

On Twitter: @baseballtwit

by adarowski on Jul 28, 2010 9:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Hmm. The “snark” tag I added disappeared. My bad!

I knew there was some sort of caveat, whether it was >50% playing time at pitcher or >50% WAR accumulated as a pitcher.

by speckops on Jul 29, 2010 3:52 AM EDT up reply actions

...

I wrote everything below before noticing that it appears the replacement level for pitchers hitting is treated VERY definitely in Fangraphs historical WAR vs Rally’s. Because, woah – Walter Johnson is on Fangraphs as having a TOTAL career value of 1.9 WAR as a batter.

That’s pretty different.

Do you know anything about the WAR standards for pitchers hitting? Because while over 600 PAs it might be 9.5 WAR, that’s rather misleading. That doesn’t make sense – Wins above what sort of replacement? What positional adjustment is he getting for being a pitcher hitting? Probably a pretty big one.
-
It’s interesting, actually, speck… Owing to the relatively small number of PAs he had as a pitcher, he’s not THAT high up the list. I checked Fangraphs historical WAR for the years he was a pitcher, because it has no pitching WAR component

In 1915-16-17 (in 1918 his PAs explode from 100-150 PAs, IE, just a pitcher, to 380 PAs, IE, part time position player), Ruth posted a total of 4.3 WAR in just shy of 400 PAs (395, to be precise). Increase that to a 600 PA season, and he’s at 6.4 WAR for the season. Excellent!

I’m sure he would absolutely own any sort of rate state, of course.

Go Twins!

by Patrick42 on Jul 28, 2010 8:52 PM EDT reply actions

I'm sorry, I meant to say...

I meant to say that I wrote everything below the “-” IE, “It’s interesting, actually, speck”… and beyond.

Go Twins!

by Patrick42 on Jul 28, 2010 8:53 PM EDT up reply actions

By the way...

When you look at Ruth per season, again for 15-16-17, on B-Ref, I see him as 1.8, 1.6, and 2.0 WAR as a batter… So, 1.8 per season as a batter. Extrapolate that over a 15 year career as a pitcher… And you get 27 total WAR as a batter(!).

Taking 1.8 as a career average because those were his pre-peak years.. Very, very rough calculation…. And he’s clearly the all time leader. By the sort of margin that doesn’t seem debatable.

Go Twins!

by Patrick42 on Jul 28, 2010 8:57 PM EDT up reply actions

And he’s clearly the all time leader. By the sort of margin that doesn’t seem debatable.

I think based on his accomplishments after he switched to a full time hitter, we can’t come to any other conclusion besides “he would have been, by far, the greatest hitting pitcher of all time had he stayed a pitcher”….

by Missing Barry on Jul 29, 2010 10:16 AM EDT up reply actions

About Ruth

Yeah… Play Index can’t really dig into what position a player was playing when they accrued the WAR. So I built the list from career totals of players who were the pitcher in >50% of their games. Ruth would obviously be #1, but my hunch is the remainder of the list is pretty accurate.

On Twitter: @baseballtwit

by adarowski on Jul 28, 2010 9:43 PM EDT reply actions

Why use WAR in this case?

Are you looking for The Best Hitting Pitchers of All Time, are only those specifically who played for a long time?

Wakefield and Moyer pitched for a long time, you know.
OPS would do

by BostonRAW on Jul 28, 2010 11:33 PM EDT reply actions

As someone interested in hitting pitchers

I’ve seen a million & twelve articles showing the best hitting pitchers by things like OPS, home runs, etc. What I had yet to see was pitcher hitting by WAR. Sure WAR rewards players who play a long time—as long as they do it above replacement value. So does every other non-rate stat, though.

And hey, longevity’s not a bad thing.

On Twitter: @baseballtwit

by adarowski on Jul 29, 2010 8:06 AM EDT up reply actions

How is pitcher offensive WAR calculated? I would think it should be calculated based on the average pitcher’s offensive performance – basically, you assume a replacement level pitcher (from a pitching standpoint), and then take the hitting component compared to the average hitting pitcher and add it on to their value, similar to how it’s done for position players…

by Missing Barry on Jul 29, 2010 10:18 AM EDT reply actions