Radical Baseball

Mickey Mantle: .400 BA batting only righty?

2013-05-16T09:58:00.000-04:00

Righty against lefty pitchers:
Year Tot vLhome vLroad vLefties

1956 .353   .408 .338 .375
1957 .365   .417 .426 .421
1958 .304   .328 .436 .377
1961 .317   .337 .413 .371
1963 .314   .350 .435 .409 (66 AB v. lefties, 172 total AB)
1964 .303   .473 .381 .424

Four times on the road, three times at home, two times overall Mickey batted over .400 batting righty against lefty pitchers.

Thursday, May 9, 2013
Mickey Mantle batting only righty: .319 BA; .400 twice.

Mickey in the Twilight Zone (TZ) of batting only righty ...
1957 .407
1964 .414
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As indicated in the post above, TZ Mickey for full seasons batting right handed against all pitchers might have had batting averages (BA) over .400 in 1957 and 1964: .407 and .414.

In 1957 and 1964 Real Mickey had BA over .400 batting righty but, of course, only against lefty pitchers. I did NOT simply assume that Mickey would have the same BA batting righty against righty pitchers. Instead, as I have done in recent posts on Mickey Mantle, I applied to his real average, in this case BA, against righty pitchers home and righty pitchers road, the percent difference for that season for all MLB batters between:
- righty batters against lefty pitchers (the base)
- righty batters against righty pitchers.

I weighted Mickey's BA by his AB, home and road, in figuring his season BA.

Here are the MLB percent differences for each of Mantle's 18 seasons:

Year MLB BA% Dif
1951 -6.37%
1952 -8.99%
1953 -3.75%
1954 -5.62%
1955 -6.37%
1956 -7.12%
1957 -6.37%
1958 -6.74%
1959 -5.99%
1960 -7.12%
1961 -6.37%
1962 -7.12%
1963 -11.99%
1964 -8.61%
1965 -11.61%
1966 -8.61%
1967 -11.61%
1968 -14.98%
tot -8.07%

In 1957 TZ Mickey got a break in that the MLB percent difference was below the overall 8%, it was only 6.37%. So TZ Mickey's "penalty" was less than the general average during his career. However, in 1964 the "penalty" was slightly higher: 8.61% .

Now you be completely anal about this and simply blow it off as idle conjecture or you can think about whether Mickey Mantle could have been the only .400 hitter since Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941 had Mickey's father not forced Mickey to switch hit.

Frankie Mantle?

2013-05-15T01:00:00.000-04:00

1933
By Goudey [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Frankie Frisch, the old Fordham (University) Flash, may have been the model for Elvin Charles "Mutt" Mantle (1912-1952) in teaching his son Mickey to hit both his natural righty and also lefty, to switch hit. If that's the case then one wonders why Mutt named Mickey after Mickey Cochrane. Both Frisch and Cochrane are in the Hall of Fame. Both threw righty. Cochrane, a catcher, chose to bat lefty. Frisch, a second baseman, chose to switch hit.

Frisch played for his home town New York Giants (1919-1926) then was traded with Jimmy Ring to the St. Louis Cardinals (1927-1937) for second baseman Rogers Hornsby who had also managed the Cardinals to the 1926 World Series championship over the Yankees. Hornsby's batting averages (BA) 1920-1926: .370, .397, .401, .384, .424, .403, .317. Gee, one off season and he gets traded. Hornsby was also 2.5 years older than Frisch and not as good a fielder.

Mutt Mantle must have known:
- Hornsby was a great righty hitter
- Frisch was a great switch hitter but not as good as Hornsby
- Cochrane was a great lefty hitter but not as good as Hornsby.

Why did Mutt Mantle choose to have his son switch hit like Frisch? Did he really foresee an era of platooning and that being a switch hitter would give Mickey his best chance to play full time? Obviously being as good as Hornsby would ensure that Mickey would play full time but who could be as good as Hornsby? As it turned out: Mickey Mantle but how could Mutt have expected that?

In addition to Cochrane impressing Mutt enough to name his some after him, Frisch must have influenced Mutt even more. Frisch was the best switch hitter before Mickey Mantle. Mutt modeled his son's baseball career, not on Cochrane, but on Frisch. Mickey Mantle became a middle infielder (shortstop) and switch hitter like Frisch, not a catcher and opportunist lefty batter like Cochrane.

Cochrane played in the World Series in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1936.

Frisch played in the World Series in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934.

Cochrane and Frisch played against each other in these World Series: 1930, 1931, 1934; Frisch won in 1931 and 1934.

Mickey Charles Mantle was born October 20, 1931 in Spavinaw, Oklahoma. St. Louis, Missouri was the closest major league city and Mutt Mantle, born in 1912, must have followed those World Series between Cochrane and Frisch in the newspapers and possibly on the radio. If Mutt knew enough about Cochrane to name his son after him he must have also known enough about Frisch to have his son switch hit starting just a few years later.

http://www.mickeymantle.com/bio.htm:

Every day when Mutt would come from from the mines, they would practice baseball next to an old tin barn. Mutt would pitch tennis balls (right handed) to Mickey while he batted lefty. Mickey's grandfather, Charlie, would then pitch left handed to Mickey while he batted righty.

By the age of five, Mickey was already showing promising signs as a baseball player and impressing the neighbors.
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That means that Mickey Mantle was switch hitting in 1936, Joe DiMaggio's rookie season. See previous post: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Mickey Mantle: father knew best but for the wrong reason.

Mutt could have named his son Frankie. Maybe Cochrane impressed him more than Frisch. Maybe Mutt Mantle just liked the alliteration of Mickey Mantle.

Mickey Mantle: father knew best but for the wrong reason.

2013-05-14T01:00:00.001-04:00

If he somehow knew that his son Mickey Mantle would have 4,848 plate appearances (PA) in Yankee Stadium, which was very difficult for right handed sluggers, then, yes, Mutt Mantle was correct when he started teaching his son to switch hit in 1936, Joe DiMaggio's rookie season.

Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Mickey Cochrane
[CC-BY-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Yankee manager Casey Stengel won the World Series in his first five Yankee seasons (1949-1953) and was known for platooning players like Hank Bauer/Gene Woodling, Johnny Mize/Joe Collins. I'm guessing that sports writers in the early 1950s retrofitted that into the Mantle legend and credited Mutt with seeing the future of platoon baseball (righty batters against lefty pitchers, lefty batters against righty pitchers). That could have been reinforced by:

Father Knows Best (radio 1949-1954, television 1954–1960): TV actor Robert Young often, but not always, knew best. In real life "he suffered from depression and alcoholism, culminating in a suicide attempt in January 1991".

Maybe it's documented somewhere but I cannot imagine what drove Mutt Mantle to force young Mickey to learn to switch hit. Even now we do not have good lefty/righty splits for seasons before 1950. Probably it was just Mutt's experience trying to hit curve balls and side arm pitchers.

We know that Mutt named his son after a player later elected to the as yet to be created Hall of Fame: Gordon Stanley Cochrane, better known as Mickey, also Black Mike. In later life this became one of Mickey Mantle's standard laugh lines, that he was glad that his father didn't know Cochrane's real first name was Gordon.

Cochrane was a catcher who batted lefty and, of course, threw righty. So he may have been a lefty batter of opportunity as most are. Fewer than half of all lefty batters throw lefty.

By October 20, 1931 when Mickey Mantle was born Cochrane was 28 and had just completed his seventh full season, all with the Philadelphia As. Philadelphia won the American League pennants in 1929, 1930, 1931, also winning the World Series in 1929 and 1930. In 1928 Cochrane won the old MVP award. The fact that Cochrane won the modern MVP award in 1934 as player/manager of the pennant winning Detroit Tigers is usually cited as influencing Mutt but obviously Mickey Mantle was already three years old by then.

Didn't Mutt realize the difficulty the great DiMaggio was having hitting home runs (HR) in Yankee Stadium? Here are DiMaggio's splits for his career, rookie season, two seasons leading AL in HR and WS (lower is better):

AB HR AB/HR
Home 2,758 126 21.89
Road 2,851 177 16.11

1936 home 288 8 36.00
1936 road 349 21 16.62

1937 home 306 19 16.11
1937 road 315 27 11.67

1948 home 294 15 19.60
1948 road 300 24 12.50

WS home 90 0
WS road 109 8 13.63

Not that Mutt knew that Mickey would one day play for the Yankees but that ball parks influence hitting too.

Friday, February 10, 2012
New way to switch hit.

While playing for the Angels 1964-1970 hot shot bonus baby righty slugger Rick Reichardt made his manager Bill Rigney who managed the Angels from their inception in 1961 into 1969 a little nuts by suggesting that he learn to bat lefty in order to take advantage of certain ball parks. You know, bat righty in Fenway Park, lefty in Yankee Stadium regardless of which arm the pitcher used. Most people thought Reichardt was nuts. However, Reichardt may have been ahead of his time. Reichardt wanted to take advantage of another stupid baseball rule that allows for non-uniform playing areas.
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Here's the thing that Mutt Mantle did not and could not know: his son Mickey was one of the greatest right handed hitters of all time. Except for the Yankee Stadium factor, which was an accident, Mickey did not need to switch hit.

Friday, April 19, 2013
Mickey Mantle was a great right handed hitter.

Mickey Mantle is really the only great switch hitter and that seems to be because he was a really great righty batter. Here is a list of 21 righty batters, both switch hitters and righty only, against lefty pitchers since 1950 sorted by OPS...

Despite the disadvantage of playing his home games in the original Yankee Stadium, which was very tough on righty batters, Mantle is in a virtual tie at the top with Aaron and Mays
______________________________

In recent posts I used the metaphor of the Twilight Zone TV program from the 1950s to describe Mickey Mantle batting right handed exclusively: TZ Mickey. Here are the basic averages:

BA OBP SLG OPS
.298 .421 .557 .977 Real
.319 .401 .550 .951 TZ

I left Mickey's numbers against lefty pitchers alone and used Mickey's averages as a base and for each of his 18 seasons and applied the average MLB percent difference between righty batters against lefty pitchers v. righty batters against righty pitchers. For all four averages for all 18 seasons righty v. righty performed worse.

I'll review the numbers in detail in future posts but overall it appears that Mickey Mantle would have performed comparably well batting only right handed, especially if he had played his home games in a ball park more neutral to righty/lefty batting.

Mickey Mantle batting only righty: .951 OPS

2013-05-14T01:00:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle might have reduced his On Base Percentage (OBP) plus Slugging average (SLG) (OPS) from .977 to .951 had he batted only right handed instead of switch hitting.

Click link to view detailed data.

Mickey in the Twilight Zone (TZ) of batting only righty against righty pitchers was calculated by simply adding TZ Mickey's OBP and TZ Mickey's SLG.

Real Mickey led the league in OPS in 1952, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1962, 1964.

TZ Mickey would still have led in 1952, 1955, 1960, 1964 but not 1956 and not 1962. TZ Mickey would have also led in 1958.

Real Mickey's career splits by how the pitcher throws:
Where throws OPS
home L .966
home R 1.014
road L 1.034
road R .926

Year TZ Real TZ-Real
1951 0.549 0.792 -0.243
1952 0.959 0.924 0.035
1953 0.999 0.895 0.104
1954 0.885 0.934 -0.049
1955 1.029 1.041 -0.012
1956 1.062 1.171 -0.109
1957 1.140 1.179 -0.039
1958 1.076 1.034 0.042
1959 0.764 0.905 -0.141
1960 1.115 0.959 0.156
1961 1.115 1.138 -0.023
1962 0.856 1.092 -0.236
1963 1.173 1.065 0.108
1964 1.247 1.017 0.230
1965 0.820 0.832 -0.012
1966 0.822 0.930 -0.108
1967 0.758 0.827 -0.069
1968 0.610 0.784 -0.174
.951 .977 -.026

Mickey Mantle batting only righty: .550 SLG.

2013-05-13T01:00:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle might have reduced his slugging average (SLG) from .557 to .550 had he batted only right handed instead of switch hitting.

Click link to view detailed data.

Mickey in the Twilight Zone (TZ) of batting only righty against righty pitchers went down at home in Yankee Stadium from .579 to .498 but up on the road from .522 to .549.

Real Mickey led the league in SLG in 1955, 1956, 1961, 1962.

TZ Mickey would still have led:
1955 over Al Kaline: .594 to .546.
1956 over Ted Williams .612 to .605
But not:
1961 Norm Cash over TZ Mickey .662 to .659
1962 Harmon Killebrew over TZ Mickey .545 to .438

TZ Mickey would have led:
1952 over Larry Doby .564 to .541
1960 over teammate Roger Maris .705 to .581
1964 over Boog Powell .767 to .606

Real Mickey's career splits by how the pitcher throws:
Where throws SLG
home L .552
home R .579 TZ: .498
road L .598
road R .522 TZ: .549

Real:
home .569
road .546

Year TZ Real TZ-Real
1951 0.289 0.443 -0.154
1952 0.564 0.530 0.034
1953 0.609 0.497 0.112
1954 0.492 0.525 -0.033
1955 0.594 0.611 -0.017
1956 0.612 0.705 -0.093
1957 0.678 0.665 0.013
1958 0.603 0.592 0.011
1959 0.454 0.514 -0.060
1960 0.705 0.558 0.147
1961 0.659 0.687 -0.028
1962 0.438 0.605 -0.167
1963 0.722 0.622 0.100
1964 0.767 0.591 0.176
1965 0.460 0.452 0.008
1966 0.466 0.538 -0.072
1967 0.376 0.434 -0.058
1968 0.329 0.398 -0.069
.550 .557 -.007

Mickey Mantle batting only righty: .401 OBP.

2013-05-12T01:00:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle might have reduced his On Base Percentage (OBP) from .421 to .401 had he batted only right handed instead of switch hitting.

Click link to view detailed data.

Mickey in the Twilight Zone (TZ) of batting only righty against righty pitchers would have suffered much more at home in Yankee Stadium than on the road.

Real Mickey led the league in OBP in 1955, 1962, 1964.

TZ Mickey would still have led:
1955 over Al Kaline .430 to .421
1962 over former teammate Norm Siebern .417 to .412
1964 over Bob Allison .480 to .404

TZ Mickey would have also led in OBP in 1958 over Ted Williams .473 to .458.

Real Mickey's career splits by how the pitcher throws:
Where throws OBP
home L .414
home R .435 TZ: .367
road L .436
road R .404 TZ: .393

Year TZ Real TZ-Real
1951 0.260 0.349 -0.089
1952 0.395 0.394 0.001
1953 0.390 0.398 -0.008
1954 0.393 0.409 -0.016
1955 0.435 0.430 0.005
1956 0.450 0.465 -0.015
1957 0.462 0.515 -0.053
1958 0.473 0.443 0.030
1959 0.310 0.392 -0.082
1960 0.410 0.401 0.009
1961 0.456 0.452 0.004
1962 0.417 0.487 -0.070
1963 0.451 0.443 0.008
1964 0.480 0.426 0.054
1965 0.359 0.380 -0.021
1966 0.356 0.392 -0.036
1967 0.382 0.393 -0.011
1968 0.281 0.386 -0.105
.401 .421 -.020

Correction: Mickey Mantle's BA batting only righty increased to .319.

2013-05-11T17:40:00.001-04:00

.319 would probably have been the batting average (BA) for Mickey Mantle had he batted only righty. This is a correction to previous posts, which have been updated. Sorry about the mistake.

Mickey Mantle batting only righty: .319 BA; .400 twice.

2013-05-09T16:01:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle might have increased his batting average (BA) from .298 to .319 had he batted only right handed instead of switch hitting.

Click link to view detailed data.

Note: As of 9:25 AM May 12, 2013 this is the third and hopefully final version of this post. Sorry for any confusion. I'll also update the earlier post on OBP.

Mickey in the Twilight Zone (TZ) of batting only righty would still have had the highest BA in 1956 over Ted Williams: .357 to .345. Real Mickey hit .353. Previous posts have indicated that Al Kaline would have been first in RBI in 1956 because TZ Mickey would have lost home runs but still finished first in homers. TZ Mickey would have had his personal best in 1964: .414; real Mickey had .303. But, no, TZ Mickey would not have caught Pete Runnels (.326) in 1962; TZ Mickey would have plummeted from .321 to .290. In his final season TZ Mick's BA: .185. He was through.

Real Mickey's career splits by how the pitcher throws:
throws BA
home L .323
home R .294 TZ: .299
road L .338
road R .271 TZ: .316

TZ Mickey's BA batting righty against righty pitchers would have kept him about the same at home but boosted him on the road from .271 to .316.

TZ Mickey would had led in BA: 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957 (.407), 1958, 1961, 1964 (.414). That would have deprived Kaline of his one BA lead in 1955 and Williams of his final two in 1957 and 1958. TZ Mick would almost lead in 1952: .326 to .327 for Ferris Fain.

Year TZ Real TZ-Real
1951 0.215 0.267 -0.052
1952 0.326 0.311 0.015
1953 0.341 0.295 0.046
1954 0.318 0.300 0.018
1955 0.343 0.306 0.037
1956 0.357 0.353 0.004
1957 0.407 0.365 0.042
1958 0.370 0.304 0.066
1959 0.254 0.285 -0.031
1960 0.332 0.274 0.058
1961 0.366 0.317 0.049
1962 0.290 0.321 -0.031
1963 0.381 0.314 0.067
1964 0.414 0.303 0.111
1965 0.245 0.255 -0.010
1966 0.270 0.288 -0.018
1967 0.273 0.245 0.028
1968 0.185 0.237 -0.052
.319 .298 .021

See post:
Mickey Mantle: BA home/road v lefty/righty. Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Mickey Mantle batting only righty: 450 to 460 homers.

2013-05-08T12:15:00.002-04:00

Mickey Mantle might have lost as many as 86 home runs (HR) had he batted only right handed instead of switch hitting.

Click link to view detailed data.

Mickey in the Twilight Zone (TZ) of batting only righty would have been penalized greatly by playing his home games in Yankee Stadium, which had very long distances to the outfield walls in left and center.

I tried two methods, which yielded very close totals but very different HR per season.

Method one used Mickey's career HR rates (AB/HR) for each season; 451 HR.

Method two used Mickey's season HR rates (AB/HR) per season: 459 HR.

With both methods I applied the percent difference for MLB average HR rates per season between righty batters against lefty pitchers versus righty batters against righty pitchers. We know Mickey's results batting righty against lefty pitchers. We enter the Twilight Zone in speculating on his HR batting righty against all pitchers. Unlike stats like batting average (BA), which consistently give lefty batters an advantage, MLB average HR rates vary a lot.

As speculated in a previous post, Mickey loses his 1956 triple crown because he loses more than two HR and his RBI lead over Al Kaline was two.

Both methods drop Mickey's two 50 HR seasons well below 50. However, method two has a major surprise: 53 HR in 1960 when real Mickey hit only 40. That's because Mickey had very high HR rates batting righty, both home and away.

Led AL in HR:
Real Mickey:
1955 37
1956 52
1958 42
1960 40

TZ Mickey:
method one: zero
method two: 1956, 1960

Method one:
tot Year
12 1951
27 1952
27 1953
25 1954
29 1955
35 1956
25 1957
33 1958
30 1959
36 1960
32 1961
19 1962
12 1963
32 1964
21 1965
19 1966
17 1967
19 1968

Method two:
tot Year
4 1951
27 1952
29 1953
18 1954
28 1955 second to Gus Zernial 30
41 1956
24 1957
34 1958
22 1959
53 1960
37 1961
11 1962
17 1963
43 1964 second to Killebrew 49
21 1965
20 1966
11 1967
19 1968

Mickey Mantle: percent PA batting righty against lefty pitchers.

2013-04-30T08:38:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle had a higher percentage of plate appearances (PA) batting righty against lefty pitchers at home in Yankee Stadium than on the road in 14 of his 18 seasons. The exceptions were 1963, when he missed almost three months with a broken foot, and 1964, 1965 and 1967. The differences in 1965 and 1967 were slight. Mickey's very low and almost identical percentages of righty PA in his final season, both home and road, may have been a realization by both him and Yankee manager Ralph Houk that Mickey could no longer hit batting righty ... even against lefty pitching.

Click link to view detailed data and graphs.

Year vLhome% vLroad%
1951 42.23% 38.55%
1952 42.72% 35.49%
1953 41.70% 40.47%
1954 37.93% 30.91%
1955 30.50% 26.56%
1956 33.74% 30.06%
1957 31.74% 24.85%
1958 26.88% 20.06%
1959 28.22% 21.34%
1960 35.03% 23.48%
1961 36.45% 27.09%
1962 36.92% 27.43%
1963 26.32% 44.92%
1964 30.88% 34.75%
1965 44.44% 42.62%
1966 45.54% 38.89%
1967 40.23% 40.42%
1968 26.98% 25.08%

Mickey Mantle: percent AB batting righty against lefty pitchers.

2013-04-29T18:26:00.001-04:00

Mickey Mantle had a higher percentage of at bats (AB) batting righty against lefty pitchers at home in Yankee Stadium than on the road in 16 of his 18 seasons. The exceptions were 1963, when he missed almost three months with a broken foot, and 1964.

Click link to view detailed data and graphs.

Year vLhome% vLroad%
1951 45.25% 39.75%
1952 43.56% 35.09%
1953 44.81% 42.73%
1954 40.45% 31.16%
1955 30.59% 27.86%
1956 36.57% 29.06%
1957 36.52% 27.87%
1958 27.24% 20.15%
1959 30.80% 21.89%
1960 36.92% 24.15%
1961 40.00% 26.41%
1962 37.58% 28.77%
1963 27.78% 46.00%
1964 31.62% 36.36%
1965 45.00% 41.61%
1966 45.20% 39.10%
1967 41.63% 40.69%
1968 28.71% 26.18%

Mickey Mantle: suppose he only batted righty?

2013-04-27T09:20:00.003-04:00

If you are a Mickey Mantle fan you are about to enter the baseball Twilight Zone:

[Opening narration - season 2]
Narrator (Rod Serling): You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!
______________________________________________

Click this link to view detailed righty/lefty splits for all MLB batters 1950-1970.

The premise is that we know Mantle's stats against lefty pitchers when he batted righted handed. So the base is (vs LHP as RHB). The percentage difference is for all MLB batters for seasons 1951-1968 are calculated from that base for plate appearances for all MLB batters for (vs RHP as RHB). Here are the averages of the mainstream stats.

HR/AB BAbip BA OBP SLG OPS
-8.65% -2.92% -8.07% -10.72% -9.29% -9.95%

I will apply the percent differences to Mantle's averages for each of his 18 seasons in future posts.

I've been considering a separate calculation for his home runs (HR). See this post:

Friday, April 26, 2013
Mickey Mantle: AB/HR home/road v lefty/righty.

Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
Min 9.5 9.3 8.0 6.9 9.1
Max 26.2 81.0 64.0 36.7 52.3

In 1961 Mantle had his career high: 54 home runs. Imagine if he had been more proficient homering against lefty pitchers at home in Yankee Stadium that season, only one homer per 23 at bats, where he had an extraordinary rate of one homer per 6.9 at bats against righty pitchers. Only fours years later Mantle had his worst home rate against righty pitchers: 36.7.
___________________________________________________

Real Mickey's numbers varied a lot. Twilight Zone Mickey (batting only righty) would be impacted more by having played his home games in Yankee Stadium. Maybe only Stan Musial played all his home games and played more home games in only one park, which did not change. From 1938 through 1973 Yankee Stadium kept the same dimensions and the structure of the park did not change as it did after 1937 when the grandstand was extended into fair territory for the second and final time.

Mick's home run rates (AB/HR lower is better):
home batting righty 19.51
home batting lefty 13.12
road batting righty 15.33
road batting lefty 15.15

I'm inclined to simply use Mickey's HR rate at home and apply it to his at bats (AB) batting lefty at home and leave his road homers alone since the rate is almost dead even.

If I applied Mickey's annual rate there could be aberrant results such as 1961 mentioned above when home batting righty it was 23. In 1961 Mickey had 230 AB at home. Divided by 23 that gives Mickey only ten homers at home for a total of 40 instead of 54. Real Mickey had 24 at home: 4 righty and 20 lefty. If I apply Mick's career rate of 19 he would have 12 at home, not much better but probably more realistic and 42 for the season.

Obviously batting only righty would cost Mickey homers at Yankee Stadium, which would probably cost him the triple crown in 1956. Real Mickey hit 7 righty, 20 lefty at home. But dividing his 268 home AB by 19 gives him only 14 at home for a total of 41, not the 52 that real Mickey hit. That's still plenty more than second place Vic Wertz who hit 32. However, even if all the runners on base scored as they did in real life Mickey would lose 11 RBI from driving in himself. He beat Al Kaline in RBI 130 to 128 but Mick's RBI would drop to 119. This could get really ugly if Mick's BA also drops to second behind that of Ted Williams but that is yet to be determined.

At home batting lefty Mickey walked in 20 percent of his plate appearances, which is what drove up his on base percentage despite his batting average being 49 points lower batting lefty for his entire career. I can only assume that opposing teams were intimidated by Mickey batting lefty in Yankee Stadium with the short right field porch. If Mickey batted only righty we could assume that he would have fewer walks and more AB at home and hit a few more HR. I think I'll stay away from this as I don't want to get stuck in the Twilight Zone.

Stay tuned.

Ted Williams: "late and close" homers against the Yankees. Research by Eric Weiss.

2013-04-26T16:49:00.001-04:00

Click link.

Ted Williams hit .375 lifetime against the Yankees in Fenway, but only .309 lifetime at Yankee Stadium.

Research by Eric Weiss.

www.weisslawnewyork.com

Mickey Mantle: AB/HR home/road v lefty/righty.

2013-04-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle splits you may never have seen. Click link to view detailed data and graphs. The data is organized by how the pitcher threw. AB/HR. Lower is better.

Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
1951 26.2 81.0 64.0 16.3 19.4
1952 23.9 28.8 12.5 21.3 46.3
1953 22.0 27.0 10.4 33.3 31.5
1954 20.1 27.0 28.7 15.9 19.0
1955 14.0 39.0 12.2 10.4 15.8
1956 10.3 14.0 12.8 8.5 9.9
1957 13.9 21.0 17.0 14.6 11.0
1958 12.4 13.4 18.3 11.2 12.1
1959 17.5 21.3 29.0 13.6 18.8
1960 13.1 12.0 8.0 10.9 22.3
1961 9.5 23.0 10.7 6.9 9.1
1962 12.6 20.7 61.0 7.9 11.6
1963 11.5 10.0 9.2 8.7 27.0
1964 13.3 9.3 12.0 20.0 12.3
1965 19.0 15.0 16.8 36.7 15.7
1966 14.5 16.0 15.3 16.2 11.9
1967 20.0 43.5 31.3 15.3 15.2
1968 24.2 19.3 15.3 20.6 43.0
Year   Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
Min   9.5 9.3 8.0 6.9 9.1
Max   26.2 81.0 64.0 36.7 46.3

In 1961 Mantle had his career high: 54 home runs. Imagine if he had been more proficient homering against lefty pitchers at home in Yankee Stadium that season, only one homer per 23 at bats, where he had an extraordinary rate of one homer per 6.9 at bats against righty pitchers. Only fours years later Mantle had his worst home rate against righty pitchers: 36.7.

Mickey Mantle: SLG home/road v lefty/righty.

2013-04-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle splits you may never have seen. Click link to view detailed data and graphs. The data is organized by how the pitcher threw. Slugging (SLG): total bases (TB) / at bats (AB):

Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
1951 0.443 0.321 0.313 0.490 0.588
1952 0.530 0.470 0.730 0.483 0.503
1953 0.497 0.574 0.670 0.361 0.444
1954 0.525 0.500 0.535 0.535 0.526
1955 0.611 0.628 0.616 0.695 0.524
1956 0.705 0.684 0.597 0.782 0.691
1957 0.665 0.750 0.676 0.637 0.642
1958 0.592 0.597 0.655 0.609 0.560
1959 0.514 0.435 0.517 0.597 0.469
1960 0.558 0.646 0.813 0.561 0.433
1961 0.687 0.630 0.733 0.797 0.622
1962 0.605 0.548 0.410 0.718 0.629
1963 0.622 0.650 0.848 0.692 0.352
1964 0.591 0.892 0.702 0.500 0.476
1965 0.452 0.478 0.507 0.364 0.489
1966 0.538 0.488 0.508 0.588 0.547
1967 0.434 0.356 0.468 0.475 0.423
1968 0.398 0.345 0.426 0.493 0.326
Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
Min 0.398 0.321 0.313 0.361 0.326
Max 0.705 0.892 0.848 0.797 0.691

Mickey Mantle: OBP home/road v lefty/righty.

2013-04-24T09:21:00.002-04:00

Mickey Mantle splits you may never have seen. Click link to view detailed data and graphs. The data is organized by how the pitcher threw. On base percentage (OBP):

Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
1951 0.349 0.299 0.250 0.398 0.400
1952 0.394 0.391 0.439 0.370 0.397
1953 0.398 0.398 0.413 0.382 0.405
1954 0.409 0.372 0.455 0.415 0.403
1955 0.430 0.505 0.412 0.440 0.397
1956 0.465 0.473 0.480 0.476 0.444
1957 0.515 0.473 0.524 0.535 0.510
1958 0.443 0.471 0.537 0.470 0.385
1959 0.392 0.315 0.364 0.446 0.377
1960 0.401 0.422 0.455 0.386 0.387
1961 0.452 0.430 0.527 0.508 0.390
1962 0.487 0.474 0.436 0.481 0.514
1963 0.443 0.480 0.500 0.486 0.338
1964 0.426 0.557 0.469 0.400 0.366
1965 0.380 0.393 0.385 0.388 0.352
1966 0.392 0.402 0.368 0.426 0.364
1967 0.393 0.371 0.457 0.404 0.353
1968 0.386 0.309 0.356 0.436 0.379
Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
Min 0.349 0.299 0.250 0.370 0.338
Max 0.515 0.557 0.537 0.535 0.514

Mickey Mantle: BA home/road v lefty/righty.

2013-04-23T09:43:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle splits you may never have seen. Click link to view detailed data and graphs. The data is organized by how the pitcher threw. Batting average (BA):

Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
1951 0.267 0.247 0.203 0.276 0.320
1952 0.311 0.322 0.360 0.268 0.319
1953 0.295 0.343 0.351 0.233 0.278
1954 0.300 0.296 0.360 0.283 0.289
1955 0.306 0.397 0.315 0.311 0.259
1956 0.353 0.408 0.338 0.347 0.335
1957 0.365 0.417 0.426 0.370 0.313
1958 0.304 0.328 0.436 0.307 0.261
1959 0.285 0.259 0.276 0.330 0.256
1960 0.274 0.344 0.344 0.244 0.244
1961 0.317 0.337 0.413 0.326 0.268
1962 0.321 0.339 0.279 0.320 0.331
1963 0.314 0.350 0.435 0.308 0.204
1964 0.303 0.473 0.381 0.269 0.211
1965 0.255 0.244 0.284 0.227 0.277
1966 0.288 0.275 0.295 0.320 0.263
1967 0.245 0.241 0.330 0.238 0.197
1968 0.237 0.190 0.230 0.292 0.209
Year Tot vLhome vLroad vRhome vRroad
Min 0.237 0.190 0.203 0.227 0.197
Max 0.365 0.473 0.436 0.370 0.335

Mickey Mantle: home/road v lefty/righty.

2013-04-23T09:37:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle splits you may never have seen. Click link to view detailed data and graphs. The data is organized by how the pitcher threw.

Here are Mantle's career numbers:
Where throwsBA OBP SLG OPS
home L 0.323 0.414 0.552 0.966
home R 0.294 0.435 0.579 1.014
road L 0.338 0.436 0.598 1.034
road R 0.271 0.404 0.522 0.926

Mantle walked in 20% of his plate appearances (PA) at home against righty pitchers, only 13.6% against southpaws. Even on the road he walked at a higher rate against righties: 18.2% to 15%. This accounts for all four of his on base percentages (OBP) being over .400 despite his road batting average against righties being only .271.

At home he made up a 29 point (.029) deficit in BA against righty pitchers for OBP that exceeded that against southpaws by 21 points (.021).

Pitchers feared his home run power, especially when The Mick batted lefty at home in Yankee Stadium. AB/HR home: 19.5 v lefties, 13.1 v righties; road almost dead even: 15.15, 15.33.

Subsequent posts will include graphs of annual data.

Jackie Robinson Day taken to its irrational conclusion: call everyone Jackie Robinson.

2013-04-22T18:30:00.001-04:00

Read post: Jackie Robinson day: enough already! Monday, April 16, 2012

Jackie Robinson must be rolling over in his grave. Even the day after the day teams that did not play on that day feel compelled to have every player wear number 42. I had lunch with some baseball friends today and the subject came up and one said very solemnly that we should all remember what a great injustice Robinson suffered. What? Jackie was insulted but he got to play and those who had been denied were wronged but let's not equate playing baseball with real injustice like ... lynching. Lynching is a terrible injustice. Being excluded from playing in the old American League and the old National League was really bad but let's have some perspective.

Maybe that lack of perspective is what causes the current policy of the Major Baseball League (MBL), leaderless during the administration of Bud Selig. The MBL has let this devolve into a pseudo religious ceremony. Robinson has been described by his widow as a religious man but I'm guessing that he would be offended by the fake reverence of what has become an annual obligation for all MBL employees and related organization employees to babble on about something that was essentially over in a short time. Robinson had indicated that he understood the prejudice of the southern players and others and that once they got to know him by playing against him they were pretty much OK with him. They were all ball players, trying hard to win.

His is a great story, one which always appealed to me. I always thought that Jackie Robinson was an American hero. I still do. Although his experience that first season in Brooklyn was made much worse by having Robinson be alone, the only black player on the Dodgers. That seems to have been a stupid and unnecessary policy. At least give him a black roommate, someone on the team who can share the burden. Robinson's isolation makes it a better story. As fiction it would be ridiculed as unrealistic. As fact, it carries weight. The irony is that the current MBL activities just turn me off. They are so phony.

So, what to do? We can wait for the sequel to the new movie about Robinson: 43. Or we can view the old 1950 movie in which Robinson plays himself. What, that's not sophisticated enough? Not real enough? Suppose we had a movie with Abraham Lincoln playing himself? Not good enough? Let's get a non-American to play Lincoln and go see that instead. Much more real.

So let's make a real mockery of the MBL. Call all the players Jackie Robinson.

Now batting for Arizona: Jackie Robinson.

Jackie Robinson is into his windup. Jackie Robinson hits a ground ball to Jackie Robinson at short who throws to Jackie Robinson at first base. Jackie Robinson is out!

Next up: Jackie Robinson.

Mickey Mantle: plate appearance distribution

2013-04-22T16:31:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mantle had 33% of his plate appearances (PA) from his natural right side.

Year Lefty% Righty% Lefty Righty
1951 58.06% 41.94% 216 156
1952 61.50% 38.50% 345 216
1953 59.60% 40.40% 301 204
1954 65.51% 34.49% 416 219
1955 70.85% 29.15% 452 186
1956 67.94% 32.06% 443 209
1957 71.91% 28.09% 448 175
1958 76.61% 23.39% 501 153
1959 75.16% 24.84% 481 159
1960 70.92% 29.08% 456 187
1961 68.58% 31.42% 443 203
1962 68.53% 31.47% 344 158
1963 63.21% 36.79% 134 78
1964 67.20% 32.80% 381 186
1965 56.32% 43.68% 245 190
1966 57.51% 42.49% 226 167
1967 59.67% 40.33% 330 223
1968 74.04% 25.96% 405 142
67.16% 32.84% 6,567 3,211

As you can see, after his rookie season the only times he had as much as 40% of his PA batting righty were 1965, 1966, 1967. Yankee manager Ralph Houk knew he had to rest his aging superstar and Houk mistakenly thought that Mantle was more effective batting righty, so apparently Houk rested Mantle late in his career so that he batted more against southpaws and batted righty.

Monday, June 20, 2011
Mickey Mantle (1965-1968): much worse batting lefty ... or was he?

BA OBP SLG OPS
.248 .389 .451 .840 lefty
.254 .388 .450 .839 righty

The Mick's HR per AB were almost dead even.

This contradicts the conventional wisdom, the type that tends to float around baseball and passes for fact. In this case the general understanding is that Mickey Mantle hit much worse late in his career batting lefty, especially during those four down, tack-on seasons, 1965-1968.
____________________________________________________

Mickey Mantle was a great left handed hitter.

2013-04-21T15:01:00.001-04:00

See previous post.

For cumulative seasons, From 1950 to 2013, vs RHP as LHB (within Platoon Splits), (requiring PA≥4500 and onbase_plus_slugging≥.920), sorted by greatest On-Base Plus Slugging for this split

Rk	I	Player	Split	From	To	G	OPS	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip
1		Barry Bonds	vs RHP as LHB	1986	2007	2607	1.084	8459	6496	1967	400	48	535	1336	367	93	1852	964	.303	.458	.626	1.084	4068	111	52	2	57	577	54	.283
2		Jim Thome	vs RHP as LHB	1991	2012	2317	1.034	7412	5933	1735	340	24	494	1277	16	15	1381	1703	.292	.426	.608	1.034	3605	120	43	0	55	168	45	.327
3		Todd Helton	vs RHP as LHB	1997	2013	1948	1.014	6444	5362	1762	444	27	289	981	22	24	982	695	.329	.431	.583	1.014	3127	112	30	0	67	168	58	.331
4		Lance Berkman	vs RHP as LHB	1999	2013	1698	1.008	5819	4787	1471	337	24	314	987	63	34	946	984	.307	.423	.584	1.008	2798	92	47	0	39	140	46	.328
5		Larry Walker	vs RHP as LHB	1989	2005	1765	.993	5613	4798	1515	334	42	293	885	168	48	694	839	.316	.407	.586	.993	2812	109	72	5	44	115	41	.329
6		Carlos Delgado	vs RHP as LHB	1993	2009	1874	.981	6167	5110	1466	338	10	383	1089	8	7	879	1182	.287	.399	.582	.981	2973	100	117	0	61	171	33	.300
7	I	Stan Musial	vs RHP as LHB	1950	1963	1399	.980	4590	3903	1263	252	35	203	716	14	23	640	251	.324	.418	.562	.980	2194	109	15	0	32	177	43	.305
8		David Ortiz	vs RHP as LHB	1997	2013	1682	.973	5390	4540	1329	329	11	312	957	9	7	795	938	.293	.396	.576	.973	2616	106	12	0	43	119	24	.305
9	I	Mickey Mantle	vs RHP as LHB	1951	1968	1965	.965	6573	5260	1477	205	42	369	1000	123	31	1260	1262	.281	.419	.546	.965	2873	47	10	11	32	96	60	.303
10		Duke Snider	vs RHP as LHB	1950	1964	1799	.958	6445	5556	1686	281	61	351	1078	71	61	820	895	.303	.393	.566	.958	3142	139	15	28	26	151	84	.308
11		Brian Giles	vs RHP as LHB	1995	2009	1683	.958	5616	4640	1402	315	36	245	829	92	38	891	566	.302	.414	.544	.958	2524	89	33	1	50	107	36	.298
12		Jason Giambi	vs RHP as LHB	1995	2013	1973	.954	6150	4972	1422	289	8	323	1007	13	8	1033	1015	.286	.412	.542	.954	2696	109	79	1	65	91	31	.297
13		Jim Edmonds	vs RHP as LHB	1993	2010	1809	.951	5940	5069	1499	341	22	318	920	56	39	790	1216	.296	.391	.560	.951	2838	87	31	6	44	90	33	.330
14		Chipper Jones	vs RHP as LHB	1993	2012	2298	.947	7686	6451	1956	402	26	361	1206	117	37	1144	1005	.303	.405	.541	.947	3493	164	13	2	76	143	70	.309
15		Ken Griffey	vs RHP as LHB	1989	2010	2401	.936	7816	6710	1951	375	29	444	1278	159	57	993	1133	.291	.382	.554	.936	3716	143	42	3	68	226	62	.290
16	I	Willie Stargell	vs RHP as LHB	1962	1982	2004	.935	6442	5620	1649	319	40	365	1108	14	13	726	1257	.293	.376	.559	.935	3143	108	48	2	46	200	48	.318
17		Fred McGriff	vs RHP as LHB	1986	2004	2186	.930	6989	5946	1746	333	10	367	1063	58	19	970	1210	.294	.392	.538	.930	3200	153	24	0	49	162	54	.312
18		Willie McCovey	vs RHP as LHB	1959	1980	2242	.926	7344	6157	1706	274	39	421	1189	21	14	1085	1034	.277	.387	.539	.926	3321	139	49	0	50	245	76	.270
19		Will Clark	vs RHP as LHB	1986	2000	1727	.925	5579	4760	1478	299	30	220	793	36	33	727	780	.311	.400	.525	.925	2497	62	24	9	59	143	49	.329
20	I	Eddie Mathews	vs RHP as LHB	1952	1968	2027	.925	7388	6240	1774	287	56	391	1079	58	30	1076	880	.284	.388	.536	.925	3346	94	15	12	45	135	81	.276
21		Ryan Klesko	vs RHP as LHB	1992	2007	1622	.920	5064	4329	1256	280	24	247	824	74	35	668	750	.290	.383	.537	.920	2325	100	14	1	46	82	48	.299
22		Bobby Abreu	vs RHP as LHB	1996	2012	2145	.920	7198	5987	1795	420	48	250	1022	333	108	1130	1231	.300	.409	.511	.920	3061	111	20	1	60	109	50	.338

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/21/2013.

In 3,250 plate appearances from 1950 through 1960 lefty batter Ted Williams against righty pitchers had OPS 1.166. Of the batters ahead of Mantle, Musial is the only one from Mantle's era; all the others played in the recent high offense era.

Mickey Mantle was a great right handed hitter.

2013-04-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

See: Monday, April 15, 2013 Switch Hitter righty/lefty splits.

I found thirteen batters when I ran this query for top switch hitters at baseball-reference.com:

Entire Careers, From 1901 to 2013, Switch-hitter, (requiring onbase_plus_slugging>=.8 and At least 7500 plate appearances), sorted by greatest On-Base Plus Slugging:

Here are the top three found:
Mickey Mantle .977

Lance Berkman .954
Chipper Jones .930

I just ran the same query for all batters. The top three switch hitters are in the top 25 of the 157 batters found.

Mantle 10
Berkman 17 (natural lefty)
Jones 25

Next switch hitter among the 157: Bernie Williams .858 at number 65.

Thirteen of the 157 are switch hitters, 8.3%.

Monday, February 11, 2013
Batters: Lefty v. Righty "Plate Appearances"

Righty Lefty Both
Min 51.34% 27.07% 2.57%
Max 63.71% 39.47% 19.99%
Ave 57.75% 33.16% 9.09%
________________________________________

While switch hitters have about 9.1% of plate appearances they are only about 8.3% of the top batters. The percent of switch hitters from 2000 through 2012 is higher, ranging from 13.6% in 2012 to 16.5% in 2004. Carlos Beltran is the only active player among the top switch hitters, number 5 at .855, number 71 overall.

Mickey Mantle is really the only great switch hitter and that seems to be because he was a really great righty batter. Here is a list of 21 righty batters, both switch hitters and righty only, against lefty pitchers since 1950 sorted by OPS.

From 1950 to 2013, vs LHP as RHB (within Platoon Splits), (requiring PA≥3225), sorted by greatest On-Base Plus Slugging for this split

Rk	I	Player	Split	From	To	G	OPS	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip
1	I	Hank Aaron	vs LHP as RHB	1954	1976	1366	1.007	3546	3044	967	174	23	216	582	25	10	457	282	.318	.405	.603	1.007	1835	72	10	2	33	101	41	.291
2	I	Willie Mays	vs LHP as RHB	1951	1973	1279	1.003	3509	2933	895	144	43	205	519	74	32	528	398	.305	.410	.593	1.003	1740	81	14	5	29	77	43	.292
3	I	Mickey Mantle	vs LHP as RHB	1951	1968	1196	.999	3225	2747	906	134	28	161	486	28	10	458	441	.330	.424	.575	.999	1579	66	2	3	15	51	49	.345
4		Frank Robinson	vs LHP as RHB	1956	1976	1464	.947	3936	3268	963	180	22	194	550	58	21	589	495	.295	.406	.541	.947	1769	90	45	4	30	114	51	.295
5		Al Kaline	vs LHP as RHB	1953	1974	1345	.908	3491	3001	930	161	25	129	438	19	13	444	280	.310	.398	.509	.908	1528	87	15	5	26	67	52	.306
6	I	Dave Winfield	vs LHP as RHB	1973	1995	1569	.903	4001	3454	1011	175	32	183	590	36	31	512	445	.293	.382	.521	.903	1799	118	4	2	29	102	48	.290
7		Rickey Henderson	vs LHP as RHB	1979	2003	1483	.871	4153	3384	976	181	19	117	342	410	135	721	508	.288	.414	.457	.871	1546	44	20	10	18	37	40	.309
8		Paul Molitor	vs LHP as RHB	1978	1998	1237	.870	3358	2951	951	182	28	75	333	164	53	342	291	.322	.391	.479	.870	1414	35	12	17	34	42	42	.334
9	I	Tony Perez	vs LHP as RHB	1964	1986	1378	.859	3429	3054	894	190	28	127	526	10	10	339	495	.293	.361	.498	.859	1521	74	3	3	30	64	46	.312
10		Brian Downing	vs LHP as RHB	1973	1992	1260	.845	3264	2700	755	131	5	107	382	15	14	501	407	.280	.395	.451	.845	1217	68	27	12	24	40	26	.293
11		Cal Ripken	vs LHP as RHB	1981	2001	1500	.822	3675	3261	929	192	11	128	444	9	16	357	304	.285	.354	.468	.822	1527	94	14	4	39	54	46	.279
12		Lou Piniella	vs LHP as RHB	1968	1984	1188	.809	3225	2962	928	172	22	63	382	14	19	217	250	.313	.359	.450	.809	1333	106	9	12	25	61	47	.323
13		Alan Trammell	vs LHP as RHB	1977	1996	1264	.805	3292	2881	844	160	21	73	339	71	42	335	235	.293	.366	.439	.805	1265	55	10	42	24	32	47	.297
14		Willie Randolph	vs LHP as RHB	1975	1992	1293	.786	3653	3080	914	141	30	30	272	83	39	503	207	.297	.395	.391	.786	1205	76	9	40	21	26	56	.309
15		Eddie Murray	vs LHP as RHB	1977	1997	1693	.785	4133	3708	1022	185	8	142	576	41	12	375	442	.276	.340	.445	.785	1649	122	9	0	41	59	46	.278
16		Robin Yount	vs LHP as RHB	1974	1993	1343	.783	3520	3116	890	168	37	68	375	49	40	341	372	.286	.354	.429	.783	1336	64	7	23	33	53	60	.303
17		Ted Simmons	vs LHP as RHB	1968	1988	1381	.782	3481	3123	878	156	13	102	516	4	14	303	298	.281	.345	.437	.782	1366	123	17	6	32	75	53	.282
18		Brooks Robinson	vs LHP as RHB	1955	1977	1382	.752	3462	3115	869	148	20	80	400	5	4	277	267	.279	.336	.416	.752	1297	89	12	15	43	59	47	.281
19		Dave Concepcion	vs LHP as RHB	1970	1988	1309	.746	3240	2910	833	167	14	43	300	113	43	287	344	.286	.348	.398	.746	1157	95	4	13	26	42	55	.310
20	I	Pete Rose	vs LHP as RHB	1963	1986	1689	.736	4410	3995	1171	180	31	41	376	66	36	356	297	.293	.351	.384	.736	1536	99	13	24	19	55	73	.307
21		Ozzie Smith	vs LHP as RHB	1978	1996	1470	.681	3596	3114	799	173	17	23	265	158	51	374	222	.257	.336	.345	.681	1075	59	11	70	27	23	49	.268

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/19/2013.

Despite the disadvantage of playing his home games in the original Yankee Stadium, which was very tough on righty batters, Mantle is in a virtual tie at the top with Aaron and Mays. There are four other switch hitters: Murray (15), Simmons (17), Rose (20), Smith (21).

Righty/Lefty census splits: 1950-2010

2013-04-18T08:36:00.002-04:00

In the previous post on top switch hitters I used averages for the census year numbers. I used these samples because I do not access to the annual data other than finding it for each individual year, highlighting, then copy/paste into a spreadsheet. I then need to organize it into a meaningful form. Obviously, this is tedious and time consuming.

Those census year numbers are volatile. Righty batters against righty pitchers seem to be considerably more effective in 2000 and 2010 for all but OBP. Here are the percentage differences from righty batter against lefty pitcher, the situation for which we have actual data for switch hitters most of whom are natural right handers.

The first column of percentages show the extra production the average MLB batter generally had batting lefty against a righty pitcher. The second percentage column is the dropoff by the average MLB batter batting righty against righty. Obviously this represents a general pattern that could be expected for switch hitters.

To reiterate, this is the base: righty batter against lefty pitcher. The percentages are the differences from that.

Click link to view detailed data.

BA (batting average):
LH v RP RH v RP
1950 5.70% -2.66%
1960 0.38% -6.42%
1970 0.38% -4.60%
1980 3.32% -8.12%
1990 -0.38% -6.79%
2000 -0.36% -3.62%
2010 0.00% -3.05%

OBP (On Base Percentage):
LH v RP RH v RP
1950 6.47% -1.76%
1960 2.09% -7.76%
1970 3.00% -6.01%
1980 6.38% -6.99%
1990 1.82% -6.36%
2000 1.71% -5.13%
2010 1.20% -6.01%

SLG (Slugging average: total bases/at bats):
LH v RP RH v RP
1950 4.02% -1.76%
1960 2.23% -6.95%
1970 0.25% -4.55%
1980 0.99% -9.65%
1990 -4.20% -7.65%
2000 1.35% -2.93%
2010 0.73% -3.17%

OPS (OBP + SLG):
LH v RP RH v RP
1950 5.15% -1.76%
1960 2.17% -7.32%
1970 1.51% -5.21%
1980 3.41% -8.46%
1990 -1.50% -7.07%
2000 1.51% -3.90%
2010 0.94% -4.44%

Averages:
LH v RP RH v RP
BA 1.50% -4.89%
OPB 3.27% -5.65%
SLG 0.98% -5.15%
OPS 1.88% -5.38%

Switch Hitter righty/lefty splits.

2013-04-15T16:47:00.000-04:00

Entire Careers, From 1901 to 2013, Switch-hitter, (requiring onbase_plus_slugging>=.8 and At least 7500 plate appearances), sorted by greatest On-Base Plus Slugging:

Rk	Player	OPS	PA	From	To	Age	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	Pos	Tm
1	Mickey Mantle	.977	9907	1951	1968	19-36	2401	8102	1676	2415	344	72	536	1509	1733	126	1710	13	14	47	113	153	38	.298	.421	.557	*8397/645	NYY
2	Lance Berkman	.954	7564	1999	2013	23-37	1817	6271	1124	1857	417	29	361	1208	1171	158	1254	66	1	54	141	86	48	.296	.409	.545	3798/D	HOU-TOT-STL-TEX
3	Chipper Jones	.930	10614	1993	2012	21-40	2499	8984	1619	2726	549	38	468	1623	1512	177	1409	18	3	97	253	150	46	.303	.401	.529	*57/6D9	ATL
4	Bernie Williams	.858	9053	1991	2006	22-37	2076	7869	1366	2336	449	55	287	1257	1069	97	1212	39	12	64	223	147	87	.297	.381	.477	*8D/97	NYY
5	Carlos Beltran	.855	8388	1998	2013	21-36	1931	7350	1270	2072	416	74	335	1251	899	92	1343	39	17	83	141	306	47	.282	.360	.495	*89/D7	KCR-NYM-TOT-STL
6	Reggie Smith	.855	8051	1966	1982	21-37	1987	7033	1123	2020	363	57	314	1092	890	115	1030	33	8	86	150	137	86	.287	.366	.489	983/5D47	BOS-STL-TOT-LAD-SFG
7	Eddie Murray	.836	12817	1977	1997	21-41	3026	11336	1627	3255	560	35	504	1917	1333	222	1516	18	2	128	315	110	43	.287	.359	.476	*3D/57	BAL-LAD-NYM-CLE-TOT
8	Bobby Bonilla	.829	8257	1986	2001	23-38	2113	7213	1084	2010	408	61	287	1173	912	128	1204	28	5	97	169	45	57	.279	.358	.472	5973/D81	PIT-NYM-TOT-BAL-FLA-ATL-STL
9	Ken Singleton	.824	8559	1970	1984	23-37	2082	7189	985	2029	317	25	246	1065	1263	125	1246	17	29	60	248	21	36	.282	.388	.436	*9D7/8	NYM-MON-BAL
10	Roberto Alomar	.814	10400	1988	2004	20-36	2379	9073	1508	2724	504	80	210	1134	1032	62	1140	50	148	97	206	474	114	.300	.371	.443	*4/D6	SDP-TOR-BAL-CLE-NYM-TOT
11	Chili Davis	.811	9997	1981	1999	21-39	2436	8673	1240	2380	424	30	350	1372	1194	188	1698	15	20	94	232	142	98	.274	.360	.451	D897/13	SFG-CAL-MIN-KCR-NYY
12	Tim Raines	.810	10359	1979	2002	19-42	2502	8872	1571	2605	430	113	170	980	1330	148	966	42	39	76	142	808	146	.294	.385	.425	*78D/49	MON-CHW-NYY-OAK-TOT-FLA
13	Frankie Frisch	.801	10099	1919	1937	20-38	2311	9112	1532	2880	466	138	105	1244	728		272	31	229		55	419	74	.316	.369	.432	*45/6	NYG-STL

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/15/2013.

Click this link to view my details of their splits.

Only Berkman throws lefty. I'll look at the top ten and compare them against themselves to try to get an idea of whether switch hitting actually worked for them.

Excluded:
Mantle: vs RHP as RHB 1 G, 1 PA
Williams:
vs RHP as RHB 14 G, 23 PA, 19 AB, 1.014 OPS
vs LHP as LHB 1 G, 1 PA
Beltran: vs RHP as RHB 5 G, 6 PA, 6 AB
Murray: vs RHP as RHB 1 G, 1 PA
Bonilla:
vs RHP as RHB 13 G, 36 PA, 26 AB, .829 OPS
vs LHP as LHB 2 G, 5 PA, 5 AB
Alomar:
vs RHP as RHB 2 G, 2 PA, 2 AB
vs LHP as LHB 48 G, 90 PA, 81 AB, .667 OPS

Mantle actually had more PA batting righty against righty: two games against Hoyt Wilhelm and two PA against Emilio Hernandez. So few are incidental.

Other than Mantle very little black ink (led league) among the other nine.

Mantle:
Runs 5
3B 1
HR 4
RBI 1
BB 5
SO 5
BA 1
OBP 3
SLG 4
OPS 6
OPS+ 8
TB 3
MVP 3

Berkman:
2B 2
RBI 1

Jones:
BA 1
OBP 1
OPS 1
OPS+ 1
MVP 1

Williams:
BA 1

Smith:
OBP 1
OPS+ 1
TB 1

Murray:
HR 1 (1981) short season
RBI 1 1981) short season
BB 1
OBP 1
OPS+ 1

Bonilla:
2B 1

Singleton:
OBP 1

Alomar:
Runs 1

Berkman was done backwards since he is the only lefty thrower. Subtracted batting lefty from batting righty. Since Mantle's averages were all lower batting lefty his percentages are positive but his HR/AB and SO/AB are both higher batting lefty so his percentages are negative.

BA OBP SLG OPS HR/AB SO/AB
Mantle 14.85% 1.18% 5.04% 3.40% -19.69% -49.45% Mantle
Berkman 18.08% 16.85% 40.96% 29.73% 51.89% 11.38% Berkman
Jones 0.33% -3.58% -8.63% -6.52% 24.51% -2.38% Jones
Williams 5.19% 6.05% 7.55% 6.78% -31.36% 12.40% Williams
Beltran 4.45% 0.00% 8.33% 4.95% -16.53% 2.83% Beltran
Smith 0.35% -3.07% -10.55% -7.26% 39.99% -15.60% Smith
Murray -6.16% -8.53% -10.34% -9.55% 19.31% 15.35% Murray
Bonilla 1.42% -5.81% 1.05% -1.95% -11.17% 39.03% Bonilla
Singleton -11.92% -14.20% -15.86% -15.07% 23.04% -19.22% Singleton
Alomar -17.16% -14.54% -10.95% -12.72% -24.23% -53.89% Alomar
BA OBP SLG OPS HR/AB SO/AB

Mantle is way lower in BA batting lefty but that's about it. Slugging is skewed because batting righty in Yankee Stadium pushed down his HR/AB batting righty and consequently his BB because they weren't as afraid that he would homer, which apparently drove up his lefty OBP but I'll examine Mantle in much more detail in subsequent posts. Mantle's OPS difference is only 3.4%.

Williams and Beltran have similar patterns to Mantle without the Yankee Stadium bias, which was greatly reduced by the time Williams played for the Yankees.

Berkman was much worse batting righty. He might have been better off just batting his natural lefty. OPS difference is 30%!

Jones, Smith, Murray, Singleton, Alomar all batted better lefty. Bonilla is only slightly better lefty. Here are their OPS differences:
Jones -6.52%
Smith -7.26%
Murray -9.55%
Bonilla -1.95%
Singleton -15.07%
Alomar -12.72%

Click this link to view "census" years data from retrosheet.org: 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010. retrosheet.org uses different abbreviations from baseball-reference.com. Here are the averages for those seven seasons.

LH v RP RH v LP RH v RP LH v LP
0.270 0.266 0.253 0.244 BA
0.347 0.336 0.317 0.316 OBP
0.412 0.408 0.387 0.360 SLG
0.758 0.744 0.704 0.677 OPS
31.59% 22.27% 38.81% 7.32% percent AB

Lefty batter against lefty pitcher loses all the averages, which is probably why it has the lowest percent of AB: 7.3%. So I guess it's understandable why Berkman decided to switch hit. Lefty batter against righty pitcher wins all the averages. Here's the pecking order:
LH v RP lefty batter against righty pitcher
RH v LP righty batter against lefty pitcher
RH v RP righty batter against righty pitcher
LH v LP lefty batter against lefty pitcher

Excluding Berkman we know what these nine natural righty batters did against lefty pitchers, second in the pecking order. By switch hitting, for over 70% of their PA they moved up to the top spot against rather than drop one spot in the pecking order. For OPS, rather than drop from .744 to .704, they increased to .758. The switch hitters needed to beat the percentage difference:

(.744 - .704)/.744 = 5.38% decrease for righty batter against righty pitcher

(.758 - .744)/.744 = 1.88%. increase for lefty batter against righty pitcher

The benefit appears to be more avoiding the 5.38% drop rather the 1.88% increase. Could we say that the cumulative difference is the sum of those percentages, about 7.26% applied to the roughly 72% of PA? Remember, that's based on all MLB batters for seven sample seasons from 1950 through 2010. Here are the percentage differences from (righty batter against lefty pitcher):

LH v RP RH v RP   Total
1.50% -4.89% BA   6.39%
3.27% -5.65% OPB   8.93%
0.98% -5.15% SLG   6.13%
1.88% -5.38% OPS   7.26%

I'm not going to compute that for them because, frankly, they're not that interesting. I'll do it in detail for Mickey Mantle.

Willie Mays and Hank Aaron: what if they had switch hit?

2013-04-13T10:37:00.001-04:00

Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were the two greatest right handed hitters in the 1950s and 1960s. Below is a rough estimate of how they might have done had they switch hit. As mentioned in previous posts leading up to this percentage differences during those seasons are using this as the base:
vs RHP as RHB (Versus Right Handed Pitcher as Right Handed Batter).

The basic reasoning is that any batter can learn to switch hit and that these two great hitters would get at least the advantage against righty pitchers as all lefty MLB batters averaged during those seasons.

Their new career averages are weighted by the percentage of plate appearances (PA) or at bats (AB) as appropriate against righty and lefty pitchers.

Click this link to view detailed data.

BA OBP SLG OPS
Aaron career 0.305 0.374 0.555 0.928
Mays career 0.302 0.384 0.557 0.941

Mays Split BA OBP SLG OPS PA% AB%
Mays vs RHP as RHB 0.300 0.373 0.541 0.915 71.19% 72.32%
Mays vs LHP as RHB 0.305 0.410 0.593 1.003 28.81% 27.68%

Mays BA OBP SLG OPS
Mays RHP - LHP -0.005 -0.037 -0.052 -0.088
Mays Pct Dif -1.67% -9.92% -9.61% -9.62%

Aaron Split BA OBP SLG OPS PA% AB%
Aaron vs RHP as RHB 0.299 0.362 0.537 0.898 73.77% 74.60%
Aaron vs LHP as RHB 0.318 0.405 0.603 1.007 26.23% 25.40%

Aaron BA OBP SLG OPS
Aaron RHP - LHP -0.019 -0.043 -0.066 -0.109
Aaron Pct Dif -6.35% -11.88% -12.29% -12.14%

MLB Pct Dif 8.19% 10.51% 9.72% 10.01%

Mays BA OBP SLG OPS
Mays vs RHP + MLB Pct Dif 0.325 0.412 0.594 1.007
Mays new career 0.319 0.412 0.593 1.005

Aaron BA OBP SLG OPS
Aaron vs RHP + MLB Pct Dif 0.323 0.493 0.589 0.988
Aaron new career 0.322 0.470 0.593 1.063