Bullet Rogan
Bullet Rogan might be the greatest two-way player you've never heard of. While Babe Ruth gets credit for revolutionizing baseball by hitting and pitching, Rogan was doing it better in the Negro Leagues — posting a .330 career average while going 117-52 on the mound with a 2.74 ERA.
His 131 career ERA+ over nearly two decades proves this wasn't a gimmick or brief experiment. Rogan was legitimately elite at both crafts, striking out 904 batters in 1,489 innings while driving in 426 runs as a hitter. The Kansas City Monarchs built their dynasty around his versatility.
The Veterans Committee finally recognized this singular talent in 1998, but Rogan's numbers suggest he belonged in Cooperstown decades earlier. No player in baseball history sustained excellence as both a frontline pitcher and everyday hitter quite like Bullet Rogan did.
Career · Batting
17 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | KCM | 43 | 169 | 1 | 16 | .290 | .758 | 110 |
| 1921 | KCM | 82 | 255 | 5 | 44 | .302 | — | — |
| 1922 | KCM | 73 | 238 | 15 | 55 | .370 | — | — |
| 1923 | KCM | 68 | 207 | 7 | 44 | .362 | — | — |
| 1924 | KCM | 49 | 149 | 5 | 33 | .396 | — | — |
| 1925 | KCM | 50 | 125 | 2 | 40 | .360 | — | — |
| 1926 | KCM | 53 | 136 | 1 | 18 | .287 | — | — |
| 1927 | KCM | 61 | 123 | 2 | 25 | .333 | — | — |
| 1928 | KCM | 64 | 201 | 3 | 41 | .348 | — | — |
| 1929 | KCM | 72 | 262 | 7 | 68 | .340 | — | — |
| 1930 | KCM | 30 | 108 | 1 | 21 | .296 | — | — |
| 1933 | KCM | 5 | 14 | 1 | 5 | .357 | — | — |
| 1934 | KCM | 7 | 28 | 0 | 1 | .107 | — | — |
| 1935 | KCM | 7 | 22 | 0 | 2 | .136 | — | — |
| 1936 | KCM | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | .667 | — | — |
| 1937 | KCM | 18 | 31 | 0 | 8 | .323 | — | — |
| 1938 | KCM | 13 | 28 | 0 | 3 | .214 | — | — |
| Career | 697 | 2099 | 50 | 426 | .330 | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | KCM | 12 | 105.3 | 6 | 5 | 3.42 | 101 | 83 | 1.272 |
| 1921 | KCM | 25 | 202.7 | 16 | 8 | 1.82 | 221 | 122 | 1.174 |
| 1922 | KCM | 25 | 186.7 | 13 | 8 | 2.99 | 140 | 113 | 1.082 |
| 1923 | KCM | 34 | 248.3 | 14 | 11 | 2.97 | 136 | 151 | 1.164 |
| 1924 | KCM | 23 | 175.0 | 16 | 5 | 3.14 | 132 | 101 | 1.211 |
| 1925 | KCM | 22 | 155.3 | 15 | 2 | 1.74 | 261 | 96 | 1.011 |
| 1926 | KCM | 19 | 122.7 | 12 | 3 | 2.86 | 144 | 68 | 1.239 |
| 1927 | KCM | 29 | 155.3 | 13 | 7 | 2.49 | 164 | 104 | 1.101 |
| 1928 | KCM | 17 | 114.0 | 10 | 2 | 3.39 | 122 | 54 | 1.193 |
| 1929 | KCM | 1 | 3.3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — | 3 | 0.600 |
| 1933 | KCM | 1 | 1.3 | 0 | 0 | 13.50 | 29 | 0 | 3.000 |
| 1935 | KCM | 1 | 5.7 | 1 | 0 | 4.76 | 91 | 1 | 1.235 |
| 1936 | KCM | 1 | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | — | 3 | 0.500 |
| 1937 | KCM | 2 | 5.3 | 0 | 1 | 13.50 | 32 | 5 | 1.500 |
| 1938 | KCM | 1 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — | 0 | 0.500 |
| Career | 213 | 1488.9 | 117 | 52 | — | — | 904 | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.