I see what you did there.
There are 14 seasons with an OBP over .500 where the batter qualified for the league batting title. 3 of them over .550. Bonds has two of them, Teddy Ballgame, the other. Ruth has the next two highest. I’ll take Bond’s video game God mode-like 2004 season with .362/.609/.812 as my batter. Here’s Bond’s stats vs every pitcher he faced that year, sorted by highest PAs. A lot of this is going to be LOL-sample size, but you can see how Bonds did vs. some of the better names that year, like Randy Johnson, David Wells, Jake Peavy, and Roger Clemens.
Clemens didn’t have the insane year in 2004 that he would have in 2005, despite winning the Cy Young, but a 145 ERA+ and a 1.157 WHIP over 214.1 IP isn’t too shabby. The voters probably liked his 18-4 record too. Bonds went 0/2 with 2 K and 1 IBB vs. Clemens. FWIW, Clemens was the first guy I thought of when I thought of dominant pitchers. Though I really like the Gibson choice too.
Wells had a meh year in 2004, but did pretty well vs. Bonds: 19 PA, 5/17 with 2 doubles, 2 HR, 2 BB, and 2 SO. That translates into .294/.368/.765. Nobody else who saw him more than 4 times, had a sub .400 OBP vs Bonds that year.
Randy Johnson was just filthy in 2004, despite what must have been god-awful run support in AZ, given his 16-14 record. 2nd in Cy Young voting, 245.2 IP, 2.60 ERA, 176 ERA+, 0.900 WHIP, 290 SO, 6.5 H/9. Compare with Clemens’s line above. Voters gotta’ be voters, I guess. Against Bonds, he did very well, comparatively. Bonds had 15 PA; 3-11, all singles; with 2 walks, 1 intentional; and 2 HBP. No strikeouts, interestingly. That yields a strange looking .273/.467/.273 line.
So, given that Johnson and Clemens were about as dominant starting pitchers as there were in 2004, and both managed sub .500 OBP when facing Bonds, I’m thinking that the pitcher’s going to win this hypothetical duel. Especially when I’m not cherry-picking the best pitching years ever in this match-up.
Relief pitchers count, I guess, per the OP. If you look at seasons with 50 innings pitched or more, and a WHIP below 0.7, you end up with 11 qualifying seasons. Sort that by ERA+ and Dennis Eckersley’s 1990 campaign stands out. 73.1 IP, 0.61 ERA, 0.614 WHIP, 9.0 K/9, 0.5 BB/9, and a gaudy 603 ERA+. 0.2 HR/9 too, which is kinda’ important if you’re facing someone like Bonds or Williams. Not the guy I’d have picked, but an interesting choice.
If a pitcher allows his opponents to bat .300, I assure you he isn’t going to be winning very damn often.
I think I’d watch a supercut of Bob Gibson beaning Ty Cobb a hundred times in a row.
I know that. I was pointing out that even a good hitter will fail far more often than he succeeds.
In the early 80’s he went 50 for his first 100 AB’s of the season.
2001 Barry Bonds against 1999 Pedro Martinez.
Pedro Wins.