Year of the Lefty?
Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:54 amIt's interesting, but it appears that people seem to be hoarding left-handed starters more with the 2010 set. Any thoughts as to why?
A good lefty will shut down most of the premier left handed sluggers, such as Hamilton, Votto, Dunn and Ortiz. Thome can still hit them with power but he's not as good against LHP as opposed to RHP. Even some of the right handed power hitters like Cabrera and Bautista can't be used to counter the effectiveness of a good left handed starter because they are more effective (hit with significantly more power) against RHP. A solid left handed starter will also cause problems for speedsters like Pagan, Suzuki and Crawford.
When you couple the players' slant towards hitting RHP with the parks in this series of cards, the value of left handed starters becomes even more apparent. Many of the parks in last year's series that favored right handed hitters no longer give an edge to right handed batters, such as Camden, Citizens, Citi and Coors. Although Minute Maid still favors right handed batters over left handed hitters, the edge is not as drastic. The only park where there's a good edge for right handed hitters is AT&T but that's more of a pitcher's park any way and most people want to play in a park where their slugger can routinely jack three run bombs. Because of this change, a lot of players are opting to pick Miller Park and to a lesser extent PNC so they can construct a team with left handed hitting and pitching, thereby giving them a significant home field advantage. And it all makes perfect sense because, after all, you play half your games at home.
What I want to know is this: What's the strategy to counter this situation?
I think it's to get some solid pitching with a tad of power and play in a pitcher's park. But I'd like to hear from some of the vets in this forum.