world #3 South Korea, world #5 Cuba, and world #9 the Netherlands. Playing style Pitching Marquis relied mostly on his sinker. He threw it harder than most pitchers, got plenty of movement on the pitch, and threw it down in the strike zone as he tried to induce hitters to hit ground balls. He also relied heavily on a sharp slider. In his career with Atlanta, the Braves system steered Marquis to also throw a four-seam fastball in the mid- to high-90s, but in St. Louis he began to gravitate toward instead using a sinking two-seam fastball that he had thrown as a teenager, which he still threw in the mid-90s. In addition, he throws an excellent occasional overhand tight curve ball, and a changeup which has good action. Marquis, the 144th Jewish player in major league history, is sixth all-time in strikeouts among Jewish major league pitchers and seventh in wins, trailing among others Sandy Koufax, Ken Holtzman, and Steve Stone in both categories. In 2009, he became the second Jewish pitcher to notch at least ten victories in six consecutive seasons, joining Koufax. Hitting and baserunning Marquis was an excellent hitter for his position. Though not unheard of for pitchers, Marquis was sometimes called upon to pinch hit, something that is extraordinarily rare for a modern-day pitcher. He constantly hit off the tee in batting cages. His baserunning speed has also led to him being used as a pinch-runner. "Watch Marquis take batting practice," wrote John Schlegel for MLB.com, "and you think you're watching a left-handed slugger. He can ping baseballs off the bleachers with the best of them. Watch him run up the first-base line with the speed of an outfielder and the intensity of a linebacker, and you can't believe he's a pitcher." In 2005, he achieved two career-highs: a .310 batting average, and a .460 slugging percentage. In 87 at-bats he had 27 hits, including nine doubles, a triple, and a home run as he both scored 10 runs and drove in 10 runs. He was the first pitcher to bat over .300 since Mike Hampton batted .344 in 2002 (minimum of 50 at-bats). His 27 hits were the most by a big-league pitcher since Rick Rhoden had 28 in 1984, and 24 came as a pitcher and three as pinch-hitter. For his hitting, Marquis won the 2005 NL Pitcher Silver Slugger Award. His first