Here is the final installment of this series, looking at players at each position recording the best hitting months.

As with Part 1 on Outfielders and Part 2 on Infielders, the method is to identify the top OPS in each calendar month for players with a minimum 80 PAs in the month (50 PAs for April). As well, the player must have played a majority of his games in that month at one position, though all of his playing time is included in the reported OPS. For Part 3, the PA threshold for pitchers has been set at 20 PAs, and 15 PAs for April.

More on these hot hitters after the jump.

Here are the pitchers to turn in the best hitting months.

[table id=134 /]

Surprised? These OPS scores are easily the best of any position. Easier to do of course for 20 PA instead of 80. But, still surprising (to me, anyway) how well these guys raked. Most of the pitchers shown were known for having some prowess with the lumber including a few (Ruether and Ferrell, in particular) who were used as pinch-hitters on occasion.

• Tony Cloninger’s month may be the most freakish of any here. Of course, he had the famous game with grand slams in consecutive ABs but, excluding that game, his OPS for the month was still 1.313, with one HR and 3 doubles. Since that 1966 season no pitcher has matched Cloninger’s 23 RBI for the season, with Mike Hampton’s 16 ribbies in 2001 the most for any pitcher since 1980.
• Don Drysdale’s month was even more monstrous than Cloninger’s. Big-D had a double and 5 HR in only 20 PA, including homers in 3 straight  games, tied among pitchers with Wes Ferrell for the second longest streak behind Ken Brett’s 4 games in June 1973 (Brett had 1.059 OPS for that month).
• Andy Messersmith was sharp out of the gate, on the mound (2-0, 2.63, 31 Ks in 37.2 IP) and at the dish, en route to a 20-6 season to lead the 1974 Dodgers to their first NL championship since Sandy Koufax’s swan song, 8 years prior.
  • HHS reader Richard Chester unearthed the little nugget that Messersmith is the first pitcher in the play-by-play era (since around the last 1940s) to allow a grand slam homer to the first batter of his career, in this game. He held that distinction uniquely until earlier this month when Curtis Partch of the Reds was similarly victimized by the Cardinals’ Matt Holliday in this game.
• No fewer than 8 of the 18 pitchers shown (Ruether, Zachary, Gibson, Schumacher, Lemon, Ferrell, Drysdale, Bush) compiled 100 RBI for their careers, led by Wes Ferrell, one of four pitchers since 1901 with 200 RBI. The last pitcher to retire with 100 RBI was Steve Carlton in 1988, with 140. The most since Lefty are 90 RBI by another lefty, Tom Glavine. The most by an active pitcher are 71 by Carlos Zambrano, and the most by a pitcher who has pitched this season are 54 by Jason Marquis.
• No, Wayland Dean is not Dizzy’s elder brother. But, he is one of just 10 pitchers with a career homer rate (min. 200 PAs) of better than 1 per 36 PAs. Also in that group are Ferrell, Bob Lemon and Micah Owings.
• Of the pitchers shown, Bob Gibson has the most career sacrifice bunts with 72. Of pitchers to play their entire careers prior to expansion in 1961, only four reached 100 career sacrifice bunts, led by Herb Pennock with just 111. Of pitchers to play all or part of their careers since 1961, twenty have reached 100 sacrifice bunts, led by Tom Glavine, the only pitcher over 200. The most by an active pitcher are 105 by Roy Oswalt, and the most by a pitcher who has pitched this season are 85 by Ryan Dempster.
• Trivia time. Drysdale’s Dodger teams included the brother act of pitcher Larry Sherry and catcher Norm Sherry. Some other brother batteries: John and Buck Ewing on the 1890-91 Giants; Bobby and Billy Shantz on the 1954-55 Athletics. How many others can you name?

Speaking of catchers:

[table id=117 /]

Surprising there are no Piazza, Bench, Carter, Berra or Campanella sightings.

• If you thought Mike Napoli was playing out of this world for the Rangers in the 2011 post-season, now you know why – he was red hot even before the playoffs. The Rangers rode his hot streak all the way to game 7 of the WS.
• Gabby Hartnett is represented in his 1925 and 1930 seasons, in both of which he set a new single season HR record for catchers, eclipsing his own mark both times. Hartnett became the career HR leader among catchers in 1928, when aged only 27. He would hold that career mark for 28 years, until passed by Yogi Berra late in the 1956 season.
• Rudy York split time between 3rd base and catcher in his rookie season of 1937 in which he swatted 35 home runs, tied for the second most by a rookie to that time. Those 35 taters included 18 hit in August, a record for any month that would stand for over 60 years until Sammy Sosa cranked 20 in June 1998. His 50 RBI in the month trail only 53 by Hack Wilson and Joe DiMaggio, both also in August.
• Bill Dickey’s months here were both on Yankee world championship team, two of the eight that Dickey would play on (nine if you count the cup of coffee in his debut season). Dickey’s 1938 season was his 3rd of 4 consecutive .300/.400/.500 seasons, tied with Hartnett for the most by a catcher.
• Chris Hoiles shows up in his big .310/.416/.585 year in 1993, good for 6.8 WAR (Note: the AL All-Star catchers that year were I-Rod and Terry Steinbach, both with 2.5 WAR for the season). For the 1992-98 period, Hoiles and Mike Piazza were the only catchers with 100 OPS+ every season (min. 300 PA), and Hoiles’ 124 OPS+ for that period trailed only Piazza and Mike Stanley.
  • One other Hoiles tidbit: he and Jorge Posada are the only catchers with career marks (min. 3000 PA) showing 100 points of separation between their BA and OBP, and also between their OBP and SLG.

To finish off, here are the  DH stars.

[table id=119 /]

The usual suspects, with Martinez, Ortiz and Hafner. But, somewhat surprising to see no sign of Baylor, Baines or McRae.

• David Ortiz’s hot finish to 2007 (15 game-tying or walk-off RBI) helped propel the Red Sox to the post-season and WS championship. His month shown here of May 2010 followed his disastrous April of .143/.238/.286, when talk was that Big Papi was done. In fact, Ortiz has kept right on rolling, compiling results among the best ever for his age.
• Edgar Martinez shows up twice in the 1995 season, leading the Mariners to their first post-season appearance (and a memorable duel with the Yankees in the ALDS). It would the first of Martinez’ 7 consecutive .300/.400/.500 seasons. Those seven seasons are tied with Barry Bonds for players aged 30+, trailing only the 8 qualifying seasons put up by Stan Musial and Babe Ruth.
• Manny’s month in April 2001 was his debut with the Red Sox. It would be his only full season used primarily as a DH. The next year, Boston said good-bye to incumbent left-fielder Troy O’Leary (7.7 WAR in 7 seasons with the Sox), and Manny was back in the outfield.
• Jose Canseco’s month also came in Boston, in a season where he split his time between DH and the outfield (barely qualifying as a DH for the month shown, with 10 of 19 games played in that position). It was in this game from 20 years ago that Jose had his famous blooper of turning a deep flyby the Indians’ Carlos Martinez into a homer, by having a ball bounce off his head and over the fence (it would be more than two weeks before Canseco had another start n the outfield, though some of that period was missed time due to Jose injuring himself while pitching in a blowout in the game following his blooper ).
• Travis Hafner’s three months came in his 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons, in which he trailed only Albert Pujols in OPS+, by the narrow margin of 173 to 170.
• This is not well known but, before he learned to tame his fastball, Randy Johnson got a look-see as a teenage DH for the 1982 Twins. He made an immediate impression with his hot April, but didn’t fare so well the second time through the league with only a .197/.282/.306 from May onwards. That ended his DH aspirations, so Johnson went back to perfecting his pitching in the minors, bouncing around before landing in Montreal. Among his stops was a brief stint in the spring of 1985 in the Mets organization, who were then fixated on another raw fireballer, the legendary Sidd Finch.