Image Credit: (2020-07-13/Matt Veasey)
What player would you pick in the following scenario? It’s game seven of the World Series. It’s a tied game. The bases are loaded. There are two outs. There is a Hall-of-Fame caliber closer throwing absolute missiles from the mound. You are the manager and need to select a batter to get on base to win that game.
Most people immediately think of picking someone like Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose, and all of the other all-time great hitters in Major League Baseball’s history. And rightfully so, since all of those players are consistent, elite-caliber hitters, and all have an incredibly high chance of getting on base and scoring runs. Who can argue against Barry Bonds’ 762 career home runs, Babe Ruth’s 167.0 career fWAR, or Pete Rose’s 4256 career hits? And if you were to pick someone else, you have the rest of the Hall of Fame members and All-Star caliber players to pick from, and you can’t really go wrong, can you?
However, after extensive research (scrolling through Baseball Savant, Fangraphs, Baseball Reference, and other various sources in my free time), I have concluded that one player is statistically the most qualified to hit in this dreamed-of scenario. That player is Scott Munninghoff.
You must be thinking, who is this guy, and why would this writer pick him to hit in a clutch scenario out of all of the players in the history of baseball? Let me explain, and promise to hear me out.
Scott Munninghoff was drafted in the first round with the twenty-second pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1977 out of Purcell Marian High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. About three years later, in 1980, the 21-year-old Munninghoff made it to the show as a relief pitcher and made his debut for the Phillies.
Out of the four career games Munninghoff played in, his second against the New York Mets is what would cement his legendary status. On April 21st of 1980, Munninghoff came in relief for the Phillies to replace Dick Ruthven in the second inning of the game, also leading the Mets 2-0. However, the Mets came out swinging and drove in 6 runs to finish the second inning. Scott was able to hold the Mets off in the top of the third inning. Something had to be done to get the Phillies back on track to winning, and Scott decided to take action on his own. Stepping up to the plate in his first MLB at-bat, Scott Munninghoff barreled a triple off of Tom Hausman to right field to lead off the inning.
The pitcher, who was just called up that year, gave the Phillies a lifeline and an electrifying knock to start the inning and start a comeback. Out of all of the star sluggers on that roster, like Pete Rose (the all-time hit leader), Mike Schmidt (three-time MVP and Hall-of-Famer), and Greg Luzinski (four-time All-Star), who would have thought that Scott Munninghoff would be the one to be the spark for this Phillies roster? But despite all odds, Scott simply just got it done and peppered the baseball for a triple. After reaching third base, Pete Rose drove Scott in with a sacrifice fly to center field, making the score 3-6. And as the game went on, the Phillies caught fire, which all started with Munninghoff’s triple, and won the game 14-8 against the Mets.
However, Munninghoff’s magic would come to a stop after his last innings pitching against the Dodgers on May 4th of the 1980 MLB season. He was sent down to the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate, the Oklahoma City 89ers, and never stepped foot on a big league field again.
But looking back on Scott Munninghoff’s legendary at-bat, it is clear to see that his statistics are out-of-this-world and make him incredibly qualified to be the player to be picked to win you a ball game. Munninghoff has a slash line of 1.000 AVG/1.000 OBP/3.000 SLG, a 4.000 OPS, 1012 wRC+ (which he is the all-time leader for according to Fangraphs), and a 1.665 wOBA.
Munninghoff passes the average baseball fan’s test since his slash line is perfect. He passes the advanced statistics and sabermetrics test by leading or having extremely high numbers for various stats (all qualities and stats Peter Brand- the Yale graduate and statistics legend- would look for in the movie Moneyball). And lastly, he passes the eye test, with his six-foot frame, good smile, and flowy hair (all qualities Billy Beane’s old scouts would look for in the movie Moneyball). Scott Munninghoff is statistically the perfect player for this scenario. By (pretty much) all methods of evaluating players, Munninghoff is undeniably the best player to get a hit to win a ball game.
On a more serious note, Scott teaches us all an important lesson about the game of baseball. Though Munninghoff only played four games in the show, his game was electric, to say the least. Baseball is a game of key moments and is often changed by one swing of the bat. Munninghoff proves to us all again that anything is possible and anything can happen in the game of baseball. That is why we all love the game.
Whatever you think could never happen will happen in baseball, and the most unexpected and impossible things are consistently proven to be very possible, despite the efforts of baseball analytics, coaches, scouts, tactics, and philosophies to predict future outcomes. Sure, we can use statistics, intuition, and all of the other available information at hand to estimate what will happen in the future, but the truth is that we can never for certain know what will happen. A rookie relief pitcher in his second game, like Scott Munninghoff, can make a decisive hit to change the momentum of the whole game. Anything can happen in the magical game of baseball.
Scott has perfect hitting statistics from his one at-bat. While you are reading this article, you are probably thinking that he will never replicate those numbers over a long period or throughout a whole season. And you’re probably right. But the key word in that, though, is “probably.” But really, we don’t know what would happen. All we can say is “what if?”. We can never know for sure, but I wouldn’t put it past Scott to hit another triple if I were a manager and needed a hit to win game seven of the World Series.
So when you and your friends are talking about who is the most clutch hitter, who are the underrated baseball players of all-time, what player you would roster, or who you would want at the plate for the last out of game seven of the World Series, say the name Scott Munninghoff. Your friends will probably look at you like you’re speaking a language foreign to Earth, but pull up his Fangraphs, Baseball Savant, and Baseball Reference pages and justify your argument. Have some laughs, have some illogical arguments, talk baseball, but know that anything can happen in this game we all love.
Categories: MLB Player Profiles
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