He's a hit: D'backs Owings stars at the plate and on the mound

He's a hitter, and he always has been, so if you try to corner Micah Owings into making a choice between hitting and pitching ... well, let's just say it's best not to do that. Ever since he was in high school people have been badgering Owings to pick a side. It never goes over very well.

"I couldn't. I love doing both that much," says Owings, the Diamondbacks' pitcher/hitter, or, if you prefer, hitter/pitcher. "I couldn't choose."

Such is the dual life of Micah Burton Owings, maybe the best-hitting pitcher -- and certainly the best-pitching hitter -- in the big leagues. Other hurlers can take a bat and run into a ball once in a while, like Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs and the Tigers' Dontrelle Willis. But these days, no one can put it all together like Owings. Over the last two seasons, Owings leads all big league pitchers in batting average (.316), home runs (five), RBI (18), and slugging percentage (.589).

And, yeah, he can throw some, too. The 25-year-old right-hander is 6-2 as a starter for the NL West-leading D'backs this year, with a 3.73 ERA after going 8-8 with a 4.30 ERA as a rookie last season.

But it is with his bat that he is changing the way we look at pitchers, and certainly the way other teams look at him. Opponents, if they're smart, don't view him as just some automatic out in the lineup, as they do most pitchers. Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin, the National League's reigning manager of the year, is constantly tinkering with ways to use his part-time slugger, which has already produced some stunning results.

"It astonishes me that he's still hitting the way he is at this level, the highest level," says Atlanta Braves rightfielder Jeff Francoeur. "Although, as a pitcher, I can't see him just sitting in the cage for an hour and a half taking hacks and figuring out his swing. It's fun to watch, it really is."

What might really be fun would be seeing if Owings can hack it at the plate on more of a full-time basis, but any talk about moving him to the field (first base would be his likely position) so he can bat more frequently has been limited because his primary value is still as a pitcher. Besides, Owings has succeeded enough there that neither he nor the D'backs have explored a move in any serious discussion. But should the unexpected occur, and his pitching career go south, it could be an option, one recently exploited to great success by Cardinals pitcher-turned-outfielder Rick Ankiel

Owings' prowess at the plate is nothing new. As a Georgia high schooler, first at Forsyth Central High in Cumming, and then at Gainesville High, Owings was one of those kids we've all seen on the sandlots. Dominating on the mound and killer at the plate. When he wasn't striking out the side, he was smashing prodigious home runs, 69 in all, one short of the national record.

"Our senior year (2002), he was by far one of the top five hitters in the state," says Francoeur, who played his high school ball at Parkview High near Atlanta

The problem for good-hitting pitchers is that, as soon as they get old enough, somebody is in their earflaps telling them they have to choose. It happened to Owings late in his high school career, but he wasn't having any of it back then, either.