May 14, 2007
Getting Lefties
When I'm writing Games of the Day, I keep noticing right-handed pitchers who are just destroying left handed batters. Here's a list of pitchers who have faced left-handed batters at least 50 times this season, sorted by batting average allowed. Notice the first ten on the list are all right-handed pitchers. Those low average seem unreal, given that lefties tend to have an advantage with a shorter run to first, and in this case, a platoon advantage. There's not a particular type of righty getting out the lefties. You have soft tossers like Trachsel and Wakefield, and power pitchers like Peavy and Maine. Anyone care to offer a suggestion as to why this is happening?
Correction: Sorry, I forgot Washburn is a lefty.
Posted by David Pinto at
04:30 PM
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I can't say anything about the general trend but James Shields is naturally tougher on lefties because they're pretty much clueless against his superb changeup. I have no idea why some of those pitchers would have reverse splits though.
Not every pitcher in the Top 10 is right-handed, Jarrod Washburn is a lefty.
If you look at 27 plate appearances (enough to include Jeremy Accardo), 4 of the 6 top pitchers, all relievers, are RHP. That is also surprising. One would think they would almost all be Looogies.
If you look at 27 plate appearances (enough to include Jeremy Accardo), 4 of the 6 top pitchers, all relievers, are RHP. That is also surprising. One would think they would almost all be Looogies.
Jeremy Accardo has an incredible split-finger pitch which is apparently the reason for his success against LHB. It is consistent throughout his career.
Pretty shocking to see Bronson Arroyo doing so well against left-handed hitters. I can recall opposing managers stacking lineups with 7 and sometimes 8 left-handed hitters and he'd really struggle.
He was basically a two-pitch pitcher in the AL, and his fastball command was pretty mediocre. He'd try to backdoor his curveball to lefties, and really there's only so many times you can get away with doing that before you spin one up there into the middle of the strike zone.
Steve, goes to show the gulf in class between AL and NL hitters. Arroyo would still be getting murdered if he was pitching for an AL team. Would've loved to see how Maddux/Glavine in their primes fare in the AL. That's why I gotta respect Rocket even though I'm a Red Sox fan, the guy did the job in both leaues.
The mystery to me continues to be how Steve Trachsel keeps putting up far better numbers against lefties than he does righties. He has kept lefties to a .373 SLG over the past seven seasons. Over that same span, righties have a .494 SLG against him. Anyone have any ideas?
