In today’s quote of the day, Arizona’s Connor Jackson made the following comment in regard to Micah Owings, who slugged his fifth home run in two seasons and is hitting .421 this year. “I don’t think you’ve seen a guy like this. I mean, Babe Ruth? That’s really all that comes to mind.”
Why anyone would be so surprised that a pitcher can hit home runs, or even have a good batting average, shows that there is little comprehension of what it takes to be a good batter or pitcher. If you examine the physical and technical qualities needed to throw the ball with maximum speed, and to hit the ball with power, you will see that the body actions are basically the same.
For example, there is a strong push off (stride), and hip and shoulder rotation followed by the arm actions. The leg action and the hip and shoulder rotation are the main force producing actions in both skills. Because of this pitchers and batters should have the muscles involved in these actions well developed.
Thus, for a pitcher to be able to hit well should be a natural. However. From what I have been able to determine, baseball teams typically ignore working with pitchers on hitting. They are more concerned with the pitcher pitching and do not care if he can hit the ball well. But if more time was spent on improving the pitchers ability to swing the bat well and making good ball contact, we would see many more pitchers outhitting most other position players.