Some of the most extreme splits in MLB history...

Skinpinch

I often cite the Willie McCovey factor in how a guy can save his percentages by not facing pitchers he has troubles with(mainly LHers). In McCovey's splits, his are saved even more because he sat the first third of his career when he was absolutely horrid vs. lefties(so his vs. LH numbers are higher than they really are because he didn't play against them regularly until he was semi competant or better).

There is also the aspect of how it costs team's chances to win, as they now become manageable against in the close games. In McCovey's case, the Giants would also lose their second best hitter whenever they played thier arch rival Dodgers and Koufax was on the mound. Think of that impact!! He played a some times against him and was awful. He simply just didn't play most of the time against him. What a crutch that caused the Giants.

More on his numbers another time. I came across a guy wtih probably the most extreme splits I have ever seen...Carl Yastrzemski.

HOME OPS .905
ROAD OPS .779


VS LEFTIES OPS .692 !!!
VS RGHTIES OPS .890

I knew of the home/road splits, but man I didn't realzie the gravity of the Lefty/righty splits!

This is something I like to look at as it is something that has a real impact on win expectancy of a team...an impact that isn't seen in the numbers as a whole.

TheVon

Skinpinch, do you just hate the Red Sox, or what?

aro13

skinpinch - I have pointed this fact out before. Check the splits for Lynn and Boggs. A lefthanded hitter (from that era) receives three huge benefits hitting in Fenway. They have the short left field porch, they have no foul territory and most importantly in the 1960's and 70's they would have faced far more righthanded pitchers as most managers thought it was suicidal to pitch a lefty in Fenway.

Jim Rice would have put up huge stats in Yankee Stadium in the seventies because he would have faced over 50% left-handed pitching like Reggie Jackson and Graig Nettles did.

Baseball - Ted was a dead pull hitter. What was his slugging percentage differential on the road? Of all Red Sox left-handed hitters in Fenway history Ted probably received the least benefit.

TheVon

Baseball, thanks for your honesty. Usually Yankee fans pretend to not even care enough to have an opinion of the Red Sox.

Skinpinch

No, I don't hate the Red Sox at all. In fact, Fred Lynn is one of my favorite players of all time. I just didn't realize the gravity of Yaz's splits vs. LHers.


Aro, the thing about Rice in Yankee stadium is that he wouldn't have faced the same amount of lefties as Reggie did, because he wasn't a lefty himself.

Rice had good numbers at Yankee stadium, but it is in less then 300 at bats(the sample is small), and the Yanks had a good amount of LH pitchers(especially early 80's).

It would be interesting to see the gravity of your proposition on lack of LH at bats Rice was deprived of at Fenway. Could be a good project for you on a cold January.

The one thing that make the impact small is that rotations in this era of MLB weren't shuffled too much(like 50 years prior)...though probably a little more than now.

aro13

skinpinch - Fred Lynn was my favourite player in all of baseball until Wade Boggs came to Fenway.

Munson had something like 40% of his at-bats against left-handers (a guess) in the mid to late 70's. Rice would have hit very well in Yankee Stadium. I realize the sample size of his at bats in Yankee Stadium are small but he faced more left-handers their than in most any other park. I think the irony is that had he played in Yankee Stadium instead of Fenway Park (and it is very possible he would have) and posted the same numbers everybody would be clamoring for him to be in the Hall.

Connecticoin

Great, another YAZ sucks thread. Goes well with the Rice sucks threads.

Can we pick on Pedro now? Did he have some magic ability to make hitters hit all their long fly balls to the "triangle"?