Ninth-Place Hitter Challenge update
After dropping the first two games of the series with the division-leading Cardinals (nice ring to it, eh?), the Brewers may not be in first place, but, on the strength of ninth-place hitter extraordinaire Jason Kendall, they have an early (and big) lead in our official Ninth-Place Hitter Challenge. National League teams’ Runs Created per 27 outs split by batting #9:
| Team | GP | AB | RC | RC27 |
| MIL | 13 | 44 | 11 | 9.92 |
| ARI | 14 | 46 | 5.6 | 3.52 |
| STL | 14 | 44 | 4.1 | 3.04 |
| CHC | 13 | 46 | 4.3 | 2.85 |
| SFG | 15 | 48 | 2.7 | 1.68 |
| COL | 13 | 40 | 2.2 | 1.55 |
| PHI | 14 | 48 | 2.5 | 1.41 |
| LAD | 14 | 48 | 2 | 1.19 |
| ATL | 13 | 40 | 1.2 | 0.81 |
| PIT | 14 | 53 | 1.4 | 0.79 |
| FLA | 13 | 43 | 0.2 | 0.15 |
| SDP | 14 | 45 | 0.1 | 0.07 |
| CIN | 14 | 44 | 0 | -0.01 |
| NYM | 12 | 41 | -1.3 | -0.81 |
| WAS | 14 | 50 | -1.7 | -0.96 |
| HOU | 14 | 47 | -1.7 | -1.02 |
One would expect the Brewers to be in the top two spots, since they employ an everyday player as their last man. But the Cardinals do, too, and they’re being outproduced by Arizona’s pitchers and pinch-hitters!
Individually, Kendall leads all #9 hitters in RC27 (min. 9 plate appearances):
| Team | NAME | GP | RC27 | TPA | GPA |
| MIL | Jason Kendall | 12 | 8.80 | 46 | .315 |
| CHC | Mike Fontenot | 8 | 5.37 | 10 | .235 |
| SDP | Tony Clark | 9 | 4.78 | 9 | .294 |
| STL | Cesar Izturis | 10 | 3.53 | 38 | .224 |
| ARI | Micah Owings | 3 | 2.51 | 10 | .191 |
| STL | Aaron Miles | 3 | 0.42 | 11 | .127 |
| CIN | Aaron Harang | 4 | 0.39 | 9 | .175 |
| LAD | Mark Sweeney | 10 | 0.04 | 10 | .118 |
Hey, Aaron Miles: at least Cesar Izturis isn’t letting a stinking pitcher beat him!
April 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
If I’m Miles, I’m not ashamed Owings is beating me.
If I’m Izturis, I’m fairly shocked Owings isn’t beating ME!
April 17th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Ha! Good point.