Why do pitchers in the MLB suck at batting? why cant they just do batting practice? ?

Question

why do they have poor swinging..

Answer 1

Carlos Zambrano

one of the best hitting pitchers of the last 50 years

Answer 2

Pitchers are paid to pitch. The rules of the game, at least the rules proper of the senior circuit, state that the pitcher must also bat. However, especially in today's game, with weightlifting and such, you don't want to take any additional risks with a pitcher.  

Answer 3

Position players spend time practicing batting most of the time more than fielding, and pitchers practice only pitching, besides some batting practice, and they only play  every  days, its hard to bat after pitching and having your arms hurt too.

Answer 4

actually, look at pitchers like cc sabathia or ex pitchers like rick ankiel. they dont suck at all. anyway, they dont do BP because honestly, if they get drilled in the arm or something, then they are SCREWED. h**l, the pitching coaches don't let the pitchers play guitar hero because the arms are so valuable.  

Answer 5

Because swinging a bat tires your arm. Batting practice would ruin their arm for the game.

Answer 6

TOO MUCH PITCHING NO BATTING PRACTICE!!!!

Answer 7

they dont wanna mess up there arms or fatigue them.  

Answer 8

they focus more on pitching/sacrafice bunts than they do on hitting

Answer 9

Most pitchers were at one time very good batters in their own right. In high school it is extremely common for one of the best hitters on a given team to be a pitcher. Some pitchers, like Carlos Zambrano and Micah Owings, are fairly decent hitters in their own right.

The competition for position players is so fierce that a team rarely carries more than one player at any position and even amazing defense rarely makes up for a weak bat. On the other hand, about half of the players (usually 12-13 out of 25) on a Major League Active Roster are pitchers.

Pitchers are simply not chosen for their ability to hit, and even those guys who were star batters in high school are completely over-matched by their fellow pitchers. Pitchers are in the Majors because of their pitching, not to swing a bat, therefore their hitting ability is simply not valued as highly as that of other players.

Answer 10

because they have to practice piting and if they practice batting they could get hurtt

Answer 11

In the simplest terms - the kind of physical training that makes a good pitcher is somewhat contradictory to that which makes a good batter.  Add to this that pitchers habitually avoid actions which could strain or injure their pitching arm, and it's not surprising that they tend to be less than stellar hitters.

Answer 12

Because they want to focus most of their time on pitching.  

Starting pitchers pitch maybe 7 innings a game while batting only 3 or 4 times.  They wanna make sure the 7 inings are solid.

Also intense batting practice(pitchers have light batting practice) can also wear and tear on the arms.