Breakdown between RHB/LHB

[hechojazz]

So why is it that there are so few lefty bats in the 80's game, compared to the 200X years? So much more righthanded here. Is it because there [u:a5465b782d]are[/u:a5465b782d] more lefty bats in recent years, or is it because proportionally those players from the 80's which made the cut here are more righthanded than the ratio to lefties was in individual major league years? A little of both?

:?:

[bjs73]

I've noticed it too. Don't have a clear indicator on why but it really makes LH pitching a pain when they're going to go up against all righty lineups.

[yak1407]

Not sure if there are more LHBs, but the really good RHBs all tend to get taken early.
A quick survey of top 50 hitters shows that 29 are RHB, 17 LHB and 3 SH.
Top 35 hitters it is more pronounced as 24 are RHB and 13 LHB with 1 SH.
So those top RHBs get snatched up meeting when you start looking for free agent RHBs they are either already burned (used by someone else with poor results) or not that attractive.

[hechojazz]

Well, not having crunched those numbers before putting my team together, I appear to have mistakenly taken lessons from the 200X games and focused on lefty-balanced pitching...only to see how relatively few lefthanded batters I'm actually facing. Of course, playing in Tiger with its beneficial ballpark effects for lefty bats encourages one to build a team in this manner, but when my opponent has 8 righty bats and a switchhitter, well...