There's something quite enjoyable about watching a pitcher swing a baseball bat successfully. Perhaps it's the fact that they train their entire professional lives to be dominant at throwing a baseball, but with this Phillies team, the fact that the Four Aces are so likable most certainly contributes.
We've mentioned the batting competition between the Phillies starting pitchers in the past, but the Inquirer's Matt Gelb found out the scoring system Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels use in keeping tracking of the team's best hitting ace.
The scoring system awards points for certain feats such as a successful bunt, hit, RBI, 5+ pitch at-bat, walk, hit by pitch, line-drive out, while you can also lose points for a failed bunt attempt or hitting into a double play.
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Pete Mackanin is the official score keeper and has the authority to award points for special case scenarios as well. Gelb writes about an instance in which Cliff Lee argued successfully for 2/3rds of a point.
Cole Hamels is leading the way with Lee and Oswalt not too far behind, but Halladay trails quite a bit. They should have handicapped him for spending all of that time in the AL.
Read all of the fun little details about the competition and see quotes from the pitchers here.
Sadly, they did not disclose the financial incentive given to the winner. What do you think they'd put on something like this? Gotta be at least 10 G's each to make it interesting?
