It’s not easy being an RHP against the Tigers
posted in 2008 Spring Training, Analysis |I recently received the comment from Brian of Spring Training 08, “Man, I would not want to face that lineup as a lefty.”
Why’s that? Because most of the Tigers hitters are pretty fearsome righties. Right-handed hitters tend to see left-handed pitchers better than right-handed pitchers. A glance at the player cards at Baseball Prospectus confirms this. Most of the Tigers lineup does better against left-handed pitching — the obvious exceptions being Curtis Granderson and Jacque Jones, both lefties. Carlos Guillen also tends to be slightly better against righties.
Managers would probably prefer to have a few more lefties than two (and switch-hitting Carlos Guillen). But I had a hunch managers would probably not complain all that much with the success the Tigers’ hitters have had against right-handed pitchers, so I looked at the 3-year totals for the regular lineup (using ESPN.com’s stats) and conclude: you wouldn’t want to be a right-handed pitcher, either. You’re going to have more success than your lefty brothers of course, but here’s a glance at what you’re facing:
Regular 9 vs. Righties
The Tigers 3-year (2005-07) stats vs. right-handed pitchers for the regular lineup.
| Name (bats) | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granderson (L) | .301 | .364 | .530 |
| Polanco (R) | .327 | .374 | .419 |
| Sheffield (R) | .271 | .366 | .453 |
| Ordonez (R) | .321 | .381 | .496 |
| Cabrera (R) | .327 | .394 | .556 |
| Guillen (S) | .311 | .380 | .489 |
| Renteria (R) | .323 | .376 | .451 |
| Rodriguez (R) | .276 | .295 | .417 |
| Jones (L) | .285 | .346 | .465 |
A few observations from this table:
- Wow.
- For many teams, you’d be happy if your lineup put up these numbers for season totals. To have this your “weak point” of RHBvs.RHP, that’s pretty good.
- It’s still good to remember this are numbers looking back, not looking forward, and Renteria, Jones and Cabrera did theirs in the weaker National League…
- But I’d much rather have Cabrera hit third against RHP. But then I’d also like him to hit third against LHP.
An observation off this table: Jacque Jones shouldn’t hit against lefties, so the Marcus Thames platoons make sense there.
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