Baseball 101: Lefty v. Righty Matchups

Mixing things up from recent posts to do a little Baseball 101. If anyone has any suggestions/requests for future installments of Baseball 101, let me know!

Even the most casual of baseball fans know that it is more difficult for a left handed batter to get a hit off of a left handed pitcher. Those who watch the 7th inning + of any Phillies game are especially aware of this difficulty.

The explanation is simple physics, but first you must understand the different types of pitches:

• Fastballs - typically high velocity pitches that fly straight though the cutter commonly breaks to the inside and the sinker drops about 5" more than the typical fastballs. 
• Breaking Balls - the slider and the curve are the most common. These pitches tend to have a little less velocity, but a very deceiving break at the last minute.
• Changeups - commonly referred to as an offspeed pitch, changeups and knuckleballs are typically 10-15mph slower than a fastball.

The most successful pitchers can throw any of these three types of pitches with an indistinguishable delivery.

When a left handed batter faces a left handed pitcher, balls that tend to "break" move away from the hitter at the last nano-second. This results in the batter having to reach further and lose balance on a ball that originally appeared right over the plate.

The typical baseball team carries between 11-13 pitchers on its 25 man active roster. Five of those pitchers are starters which leaves you between 6-8 guys you can turn to later in games. It's important that every bullpen has an even mix left handed and right handed guys. Late in a close game, managers will frequently use their pitchers for only a batter or two in an attempt to exploit the same handedness disadvantage. Tony Larrusa uses this strategy perhaps TOO often. Though it has existed in some form or another for decades, the term "LOOGY" has recently been coined in reference to a "left handed, one out guy." A guy like JC Romero has made an entire career out of being a LOOGY.

So if the Phillies are down 3-2 in the 8th inning of a ballgame and the heart of our lineup is coming to bat (Utley, Howard, Ibanez), you can almost guarantee that an opposing manager will bring in his left handed specialist pitcher:

vs. Lefty - Utley - .283 BA
vs. Righty - Utley - .298 BA

vs. Lefty - Howard - .232 BA
vs. Righty - Howard - .302 BA

vs. Lefty - Ibanez - .269 BA
vs. Righty - Ibanez - .289 BA

The likelihood of a comeback from those three drops significantly when facing a left handed pitcher (and the splits are even worse when facing an opposing relief pitcher!)