This could be called 'Stuff' or maybe 'Splits' since most of this will be about splits, mainly, lefty-righty matchups....
It seemed like Toronto's bombers hit home runs everyday last season. There was a simple solution to stop the insanity.
Here are the splits from the middle of the lineup vs. southpaws...
Bautista .222/8/17
Wells .195/4/11
Hill .125/3/9
Lind .117/2/10
Combined .165/17/47 in 478 at bats...
Ah Choo!- Choo had one homer off a southpaw last year...
Derek Jeter had 478 at bats vs righties last year, four home runs.
He had six in 212 at bats vs lefties...
Kelly jonson vs. left- .310/12/33/184 ab's
Kelly Johnson vs right .272/14/38/401 ab's
Johnson was thought to have trouble with lefties before last year....
Nick Markakis hit an amazing .361 vs lefties.
Problem was, that in 191 at bats, Markakis had just two home runs...
Nate McLouth hit .135 and had one xbh vs. lefties...
Rajai Davis obp vs. righties...309
Juan Pierre obp vs. righties...324
King Albert hit 18 homers in just 170 at bats vs lefties...
Seth Smith hit just .154 and three doubles vs. lefties...
But his platoon mate, Ryan Spilborghs hit .296 vs. righties and slugged .471, 76 points higher than lefties...
Did Geo comeback last year or did he just see lefties better?
Soto hit .367 and slugged .466 vs. lefties...
.235 and .354 vs. righties...
Jose Tabata had one home run in 308 at bats vs. righties last year...
Left handers hit .127 vs. Neftali Feliz last year...
Consistency?
Righties hit .212, lefties .213 vs Felix Hernandez...
Righties .201, lefties .203 vs. Dan Hudson
Lefties hit .301 vs. Jeremy Hellickson
Jose Valverde had a .165 baa vs. lefties
That sounds good, right?
Here is the damage...
19 hits, 12 of which, were extra base hits
22 rbi
One in nine current major league pitchers have had Tommy John surgery...
160 and counting have had the procedure...
Tommy John had his surgery in 1974...
He won 164 games after going under the knife...
Before the surgery, doctors gave him less than a 10% chance of ever pitching again...