Pitchers batting is like place kickers playing quarterback.

Way back field goals and extra points were kicked by a football player. Eventually, that skill became specialized and teams carried someone on their roster who did nothing else. The role changed from kicking straight away to soccer style. Mark Mosely, NFL 1970-1986, was the last non-soccer style place kicker and the only NFL MVP (1982) who did not play another position.

Now imagine if one of these kicking specialists were required to play quarterback every nine plays. They would be horrendous and it would make no sense to require that. Why? Because they are not football players and they are certainly not quarterbacks.

The National League still requires that its pitchers bat when playing in a NL ballpark. How quaint. So far in 2019 26 pitchers had at least 30 plate appearances. 15 of those 30 had negative OPS+. Who even knows what that means? Two are all the way down at -81.

11 pitchers with positive OPS+ in 2019 so far:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Zack Greinke	139	38	2019	35	ARI	NL	16	33	6	10	2	1	2	5	2	0	8	0	3	0	0	1	0	.303	.343	.606	.949	*1/H
2	Brandon Woodruff	124	35	2019	26	MIL	NL	17	33	1	12	4	0	0	4	1	0	13	0	1	0	0	0	0	.364	.382	.485	.867	*1/H
3	Zack Wheeler	123	33	2019	29	NYM	NL	14	31	4	10	2	0	1	4	1	0	10	0	1	0	0	0	0	.323	.344	.484	.828	*1
4	Jacob deGrom	67	35	2019	31	NYM	NL	16	33	2	7	2	0	1	2	2	0	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	.212	.257	.364	.621	*1/H
5	Kenta Maeda	61	33	2019	31	LAD	NL	15	26	2	7	2	0	0	2	0	0	3	0	7	0	0	0	0	.269	.269	.346	.615	*1/H
6	German Marquez	41	38	2019	24	COL	NL	16	34	3	8	2	1	0	10	0	0	11	0	4	0	1	0	0	.235	.235	.353	.588	*1/H
7	Max Fried	34	31	2019	25	ATL	NL	20	26	6	5	2	0	0	2	2	0	8	0	3	0	0	0	0	.192	.250	.269	.519	*1/H
8	Kyle Hendricks	31	31	2019	29	CHC	NL	13	25	1	5	1	0	0	4	2	0	13	0	4	0	0	0	0	.200	.259	.240	.499	*1
9	Madison Bumgarner	27	34	2019	29	SFG	NL	16	30	2	4	0	0	1	2	4	0	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	.133	.235	.233	.469	*1
10	Noah Syndergaard	25	38	2019	26	NYM	NL	15	35	4	4	1	0	2	2	2	0	25	0	1	0	0	0	0	.114	.162	.314	.476	*1
11	Joe Musgrove	1	32	2019	26	PIT	NL	22	26	3	4	0	0	0	0	2	0	11	0	4	0	0	0	0	.154	.214	.154	.368	*1/H

Wow. Three have OPS+ well over league average 100. How have they done batting in their careers?

Greinke
2012 only full season (72 PA) with OPS+ over 100: 125
career OPS+ 59

Woodruff (judge for yourself)

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
2017	24	MIL	NL	7	12	10	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	.200	.273	.200	.473	27	2	0	0	1	0	0	/1
2018	25	MIL	NL	19	10	8	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	.250	.333	.625	.958	149	5	1	0	1	0	0	1
2019	26	MIL	NL	17	35	33	1	12	4	0	0	4	0	0	1	13	.364	.382	.485	.867	124	16	0	0	1	0	0	1
3 Yrs				43	57	51	5	16	4	0	1	5	0	0	3	16	.314	.352	.451	.803	108	23	1	0	3	0	0

Wheeler career OPS+ 8

Pitchers are not players. Having them take every 9th PA is ridiculous. MLB might as well send up a random fan in attendance.

Designated FIELDER, 8 batters! Now that's entertainment! Sunday, December 27, 2015

Pitchers career OPS+: all below 100, league average. Saturday, June 22, 2019 9:47 AM

Pitchers batting since 1901. Except for Babe Ruth, they suck. Sunday, July 23, 2017

Good hitting pitchers is an oxymoron. What a great word, even if I had to look it up to verify its meaning.
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