Alright, I am not much of a Numerish guy. If wanting pure Numerish, there is no better place to get it than Mastersball.
I do like numbers though. I'm a simplistic guy who gets easily confused. So WAR is an old Edwin Starr song for me...at least I think it was Edwin Starr, anyway...
It used to be that a left handed hitter had an advantage in baseball. They were closer to first base, so they got more base hits, which resulted in a higher average.
Then 'The Shift' came. I should say, 'THE SHIFT'. Because THE SHIFT is a scary thing.
It has made a .200 hitter out of a .250 hitting Adam Dunn.
It has messed with Mark Teixeira's mind.
It has made David Ortiz bunt.
It has made folks call Joe Maddon a genius.
I think Casey Stengel was the first Manager to employ a shift. And his shifts were not as drastic as they are today.
Stengel was one of the first to use a platoon too, so when reading those old Crazy Casey Stengel stories, remember the balls and brilliance behind the man too.... Wait, that didn't come out right. His balls were not behind...never mind...
Now I know the shift is not SOLELY to blame for the numbers you are about to see. But THE SHIFT is a scary thing. I don't want it pissed at me, so I'm giving THE SHIFT the lions share of the credit.
Ok here goes-
There were 27 hitters who hit 30 home runs last year.
note- I did not cherry pick this number as Billy Butler was the only hitter with 29.
13 hitters were right handed
12 hitters were left handed
Two, Headley and Beltran are bi-handed (Aren't we all?)
MCabrera 44/.330
Encarnacion 42/.280
Braun 41/.319
Stanton 37/.290
Beltre 36/.321
Willingham 35/.260
Soriano 32/.262
A Jones 32/.287
Trumbo 32/.268
McCutchen 31/.327
Pujols 30/.285
Hart 30/.270
Trout 30/.326
Combined, these hitters hit .294
Not one, including Soriano, hit under .260
There are still a lot more right handed pitchers in baseball. It doesn't matter to these guys. The handedness of a pitcher is less effective than....THE SHIFT.
To illustrate the point, here is the list of left handers-
Hamilton 43/.285
Granderson 43/.232
Dunn 41/. 204
Bruce 34/.252
LaRoche 33/.271
C Davis 33/270
Cano 33/313
Reddick 32/.242
I Davis 32/.227
Fielder 30/.313
Kubel 30/.253
Alvarez 30/.244
Combined, these lefties hit for a .258 average
36 points below what the power right handed hitters had.
Baseball does not make wholesale changes on the field. They come slowly.
And now, most every team has embraced THE SHIFT. They should, if they don't, THE SHIFT will kick their ass.
It has already kicked the left handed power hitting's average ass.