Koufax was strikeout king at the plate, too

January 24, 2012 (Tuesday)

JEWISH BASEBALL NEWS — Sandy Koufax was among the most masterful pitchers in baseball history, and statistics proving it are plentiful.

In 1965 the “Left Arm of God” struck out 382 batters and walked just 71, second only to Nolan Ryan’s 383/162 in 1973. The Brooklyn native’s career shutouts-to-innings ratio is the 6th highest on record. In his final season, with doctors warning that he risked losing use of his ravaged left arm, Koufax went 27-9 with a 1.73 ERA and 317 Ks.

But here’s something you may not know: Sandy Koufax was a strikeout king at the plate, too. And arguably one of the worst batters in baseball history.

The evidence, again, is in the numbers. Using Baseball-Reference.com‘s fantastic “Play Index” utility, Jewish Baseball News compiled a list of all pro baseball players with at least 750 career at-bats from 1871 to 2011, including pitchers. Here is what we found:

In 776 career at-bats, Koufax — a lefty hurler who hit right-handed — struck out 386 times, or 49.7% of the time. No other player has matched that strikeout rate. Fellow pitcher Milt Pappas (1957-73) came closest, at 47.5%.
Koufax ranked 2nd-worst all-time both in batting average (.097) and on-base percentage (.145). The ‘leader’ in that category of the damned is P Bob Buhl, who hit .089 with a .129 OBP. Like Koufax, Buhl let his pitching do the talking, going 166-132 with a 3.55 ERA over a career that spanned from 1953-67.

The 10 worst career strikeout ratios in baseball history, 1871-2011

	Player	SO	AB	SO ratio	BA	OBP
1	Sandy Koufax	386	776	49.7%	.097	.145
2	Milt Pappas	510	1,073	47.5%	.123	.157
3	Jerry Koosman	418	915	45.7%	.119	.151
4	Bob Buhl	389	857	45.4%	.089	.129
5	Mickey Lolich	362	821	44.1%	.110	.215
6	Nolan Ryan	371	852	43.5%	.110	.148
7	Lefty Grove	593	1,369	43.3%	.148	.209
8	Jim Lonborg	330	770	42.9%	.136	.191
9	Jerry Reuss	428	1,016	42.1%	.167	.221
10	Dave Nicholson	573	1,419	40.4%	.212	.318