So ... Wednesday morning I post about Denard Span's decline this season in hitting with two strikes. Wednesday evening Span came up with two on and doubled on a 3-2 pitch, leading a blog-reading colleague to tease me. I can't hit with two strikes? In your face, Edward Thoma!

Which is fine. If Mr. Span goes 10-for-10 in two-strike at-bats, it won't change reality. The reality is that the average American League hitter is worse with two strikes than Nick Punto in a bad season. That doesn't predetermine the result of any specific at-bat.

The verbal jabs turned to a more serious chat about two-strikes. And in passing, I suggested that perhaps a hitter who can consistently hit .250 with two strikes is Hall of Fame material.

So I turned to that marvelous resource, Baseball Reference, and cherry-picked some recent HoFers, some guys who are destined for the Hall, and some who aren't. I couldn't go too far back; BR doesn't have the data for Rod Carew.

Anyway, here's what I found (career split lines first, two-strike split lines second):

Albert Pujols: .333/.428/.629; .271/.336/.490 source:here

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