I’m really struggling to find a writing angle for Montreal Expos starting pitcher Ken Hill. He was a workhorse, anchoring the rotation with an ability to give the bullpen rest. He could show flashes of dominance and finished second to Greg Maddux in Cy Young Award voting in 1994. He twice led the league in walks, but with an average of only 2.6 per 9 innings this was a function of a heavy workload. His low rate of home runs (0.3 per 9 inning in 1993) is a statistical outlier considering he primarily relied on a fastball to make batters swing. Injuries were a recurring problem and played a role in sending Hill to an average of one new team every other season in his 14 year career.
Hill won 117 games in his career, but perhaps put more into winning than any other in a 1997 game against the Padres. Hill scattered 4 hits over 8 1/3 innings and allowed only one run. He personally drove in both of his team’s runs with a 2-out double in the 5th inning.
