Ask 14: Rice: Pitchers That Gave Me Trouble

Well, if you go by those blasted BBWAA members...all of ‘em!

Who was the best pitcher you faced-the hardest to get a hit off, and who was the easiest (Of the pitchers that were in MLB for a significant period)?

When I think of guys I had trouble with, I think of relievers. Guys who hide the ball well in their deliveries like Dan Quisenberry or Dennis Eckersley. These were guys who could come in for a couple innings and be dominant.

Like Papi, he might hit four bullets into the shift and come up empty because the 2nd baseman in playing in short right field. He hit the ball well but it still shows up as 0 for 4 in the box score. Well, that type of stuff happened to me also. I might be o for 7 against a guy but I still hit him hard. It wasn’t the necessarily the pitcher that I stuggled with, it was the defense.

The pitchers who i didn’t like were guys like Eck and Q who I might have faced 20 times but might have struck out 9 times. Quisenberry was toughest on me. He threw hard, hid the ball well, and came almost underhand in his delivery.