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Portsiders in the Pen

By Daniel Marks

October 20, 2018

All About "Lefties"

I’m intrigued by lefties. I’m sure part of it is related to their relative scarceness. Only about 10% of the U.S. population is left-handed.

U.S. presidents have slightly exceeded that rate, as 6 of the 44 men (14%) who have held the highest office have been left-handed (I’m only counting Grover Cleveland once). We’ve had a run on them in recent years, as 5 of the last 8 (Obama, Clinton, Bush (the elder), Reagan, and Ford) were all left-handed (Truman was the other). It’s interesting that half the lefties have actually been "righties" on the political spectrum.

In baseball, lefties appear more frequently than they do in the general population. In 2018, about 25% of pitchers threw left handed. About 12% of non-pitchers threw left-handed, which, when you think about it, is actually a pretty decent percentage when you consider that 4 of the fielding positions (second base, shortstop, third base, and catcher), for all intents and purposes, don’t produce any left-handers.

Quick sidebar….who are the most recent left-handers to appear at those 4 positions in the Major Leagues? Here’s what I found:

· Catcher – Benny Distefano – 1989

· Second Base – Anthony Rizzo – 2018 (he also did it in 2017 and 2016)

· Third Base – Anthony Rizzo – 2017

· Shortstop – Nino Escalera – 1954

Now, of course, most of this is either pure quirkiness or represents token appearances for a variety of reasons. Rizzo has had several games where he gets counted as "playing" second base because of how he’s positioned on certain bunt plays. There’s a rule that states that, when he’s further away from first base than another player (in this case, the second baseman), he’s not allowed to wear his first baseman’s mitt, and he gets designated as the second baseman.

Other notable left-handers with ten or more games at these positions (not an exhaustive list, but just some of the more recognizable names)?

Catcher – Fred Tenney, Jiggs Donahue, Jack Clements
Second Base – Anthony Rizzo (again, due to the quirkiness of the rule), Hal Chase, Willie Keeler, Roger Connor
Third Base – Mike Squires, Willie Keeler, Roger Connor
Shortstop – Jimmy Ryan, George Van Haltren

As you might have guessed, it was a much more common occurrence in the early years of baseball than it has been in more recent decades.

Lefty as a Nickname

"Lefty" appears to be the most common nickname in baseball history. There’s a page on baseball-reference.com that lists players and nicknames, and I did a quick tally of the results. Here are the most common nicknames according to that source:

Nickname	Total
Lefty	126
Red	48
Dutch	32
Doc	27
Buck	19
Moose	17
Whitey	15
Big Bill	15
Big Ed	12
Sheriff	11
Pete	11
Jumbo	11
Jack	11
Chief	11
Bull	11
Wild Bill	10

However…..there’s a bit of a caveat to this. In looking at the results, I noticed that some of the more well-known "Lefty"s, such as Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez, Lefty O’Doul, etc., are not included in those results because the site considers "Lefty" to be part of their baseball common names rather than designated as a "nickname". So, the actual count of "Lefty"s is much higher than 126. Of course, the same is true of the other names (for example, Red Ruffing, Red Rolfe, Red Faber, and Red Ames are not included in the "Red"s). So, those results need to be taken with a grain of salt.

I did a separate query on the site by specifically plugging in "Lefty" into the player name search, which pulls in both cases….those with "Lefty" in the player’s "baseball name", and also if it appears in the "nickname". The result? It’s actually a whopping 181 Major League players!

I was curious about how those names were distributed over time. Here they are, grouped by the decade of the last year that the player appeared in the Majors:

Decade	Total
1870s	1
1890s	6
1900s	8
1910s	26
1920s	47
1930s	37
1940s	36
1950s	16
1960s	2
1970s	1
1980s	1
Total	181

So, the nickname really started to catch on in the 1910’s, and was very common for about 40-50 years, and then basically started to fade away pretty quickly after that. The player from the 1980’s, by the way, was Steve Carlton. "Lefty" appears to have ended with him, and we haven’t had any "Lefty"s in the last 30 years.

In addition, the site lists an additional 82 minor league "Leftys", plus another 12 from the Negro Leagues. Also, one manager (Lefty Phillips).

I did not attempt to tally by position, but just in eyeballing them, the overwhelming majority, as you might have guessed, were pitchers.

For those of you keeping track…..there have been zero players nicknamed "Righty".

Southpaw Starters

Sandy Koufax. Lefty Grove. Randy Johnson. Warren Spahn. Steve Carlton. "King Carl" Hubbell. Many of the top left-handed pitchers represent true baseball royalty.

In total, 15 left-handed hurlers are in the Hall of Fame (not counting players like Babe Ruth, George Sisler, and Jesse Burkett who were primarily elected as position players). Here are the 15, listed in descending order by rWAR:

Rk	Player	WAR	W	L	ERA
1	Lefty Grove	112.5	300	141	3.06
2	Randy Johnson	103.6	303	166	3.29
3	Warren Spahn	92.6	363	245	3.09
4	Eddie Plank	88.2	326	194	2.35
5	Steve Carlton	84.4	329	244	3.22
6	Tom Glavine	74.1	305	203	3.54
7	Carl Hubbell	68.7	253	154	2.98
8	Rube Waddell	60.8	193	143	2.16
9	Hal Newhouser	60.7	207	150	3.06
10	Eppa Rixey	56.8	266	251	3.15
11	Whitey Ford	53.5	236	106	2.75
12	Sandy Koufax	53.2	165	87	2.76
13	Herb Pennock	43.9	241	162	3.6
14	Lefty Gomez	43.1	189	102	3.34
15	Rube Marquard	34.4	201	177	3.08

One thing I find interesting is that the Hall of Fame lefties have been concentrated onto a few teams. The A’s have 3 of the 15 (Grove, Plank, Waddell), the Yankees have 3 (Ford, Pennock, Gomez), the Giants have 2 (Hubbell and Marquard), and the Braves have 2 (Spahn and Glavine). The remaining lefties are sprinkled among the Diamondbacks (Johnson, who I would consider more as a Diamondback than a Mariner even though he played more seasons with Seattle), Phillies (Carlton), Tigers (Newhouser), Reds (Rixey), and Dodgers (Koufax).

Among the leading candidates who might eventually go into the Hall, you see many of the same teams repeated: there is Clayton Kershaw (another Dodger), C.C. Sabathia (Yankees, although he’s pretty evenly split between New York and Cleveland), Andy Pettitte (Yankees) and Tommy John (who would probably go in as either a Yankee or a Dodger). Maybe Jim Kaat (mostly Twins) will go in at some point. I think Kershaw’s the best bet of this group to make the Hall, but I certainly wouldn’t be too surprised by any of the others.

What is one thing that all of the lefty Hall of Fame pitchers have in common? They were all starting pitchers. Well, to be more specific, they were all primarily starting pitchers. Grove and Hubbell, for example, each had over 100 games in relief, and each lead the league (retroactively) in saves once, as that was not an uncommon usage of star pitchers in that general era. In fact, both Grove and Hubbell had seasons in which they led the league in both ERA and saves, and Hubbell also led in complete games that same season. How many pitchers have been able to lead in all 3 of those in the same season? I’m not sure of the answer. I know Ed Walsh accomplished it once. I suspect there may be a few others.

Some of the other Hall of Fame lefties accumulated a significant number of relief appearances as well. However, any reasonable person would consider all 15 to be "starting pitchers". You just don’t see that many dominant, career lefty relievers.

Which brings us to the main segment of the article…..

Portsiders in the Pen

The only Hall of Fame pitchers classified primarily as relievers are Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Dennis Eckersley, and Trevor Hoffman, although Mariano Rivera is a lock to join their ranks next year. There are no left-handed relievers in the Hall.

The best lefty reliever candidate to date has been Billy Wagner, who has been on the ballot 3 times and has received 10-11% of the vote each time. He has a good case, but it’s difficult to see him gaining enough support to be elected by the writers.

Is Wagner the greatest lefty reliever of all time? Probably. Let’s examine the field.

I did a pull of left-handed pitchers from baseball-reference.com in which I only pulled in their stats while appearing as a reliever. I pulled in the top 300 based on relief games. So, for example, while Bruce Chen (who was #300 in the list) appeared in 400 games as a Major Leaguer, he only had 173 as a reliever, with the other 227 coming as a starting pitcher. Only his stats as a reliever in those 173 games are included in the analysis to follow.

Here are a few lefty leaders in different categories among those 300 pitchers (* indicates active):

Lefty Relief Games:

Player	G
Jesse Orosco	1,248
Mike Stanton	1,177
John Franco	1,119
Dan Plesac	1,050
Sparky Lyle	899
Paul Assenmacher	883
Eddie Guardado	883
Mike Myers	883
Alan Embree	878
Billy Wagner	853

Lefty Relief Innings Pitched:

Player	IP
Sparky Lyle	1,390
Tug McGraw	1,301
Jesse Orosco	1,277
Tom Burgmeier	1,248
John Franco	1,245
Ron Perranoski	1,170
Mike Stanton	1,110
Gary Lavelle	1,077
Darold Knowles	1,052
Paul Lindblad	1,045

Lefty Saves:

Player	Saves
John Franco	424
Billy Wagner	422
Randy Myers	347
Dave Righetti	252
Sparky Lyle	238
Aroldis Chapman*	236
Brian Fuentes	204
Mitch Williams	192
Eddie Guardado	187
Tug McGraw	180

Note – Franco, Wagner, and Myers are in the top 12 on the all-time Saves list, but then you don’t see another lefty until Righetti at #36. In all, only 17 of the top 100 on the Saves list are left-handed.

ERA among lefty relievers

Player	ERA	IP as Reliever
Zach Britton*	1.79	291
Aroldis Chapman*	2.24	478
Jonny Venters*	2.25	263
Billy Wagner	2.31	903
Andrew Miller*	2.56	400
Tony Watson*	2.67	519
Scott Downs	2.68	504
Wilbur Wood	2.71	565
Billy O'Dell	2.71	498
Joe Gibbon	2.73	412

There are several surprising names among the ERA leader group, for 2 basic reasons:

Several pitchers are still active, and their ERAs are likely to fall by the time their careers end.
Several of these pitchers’ career records include significant time as a starting pitcher, and they were much more effective in relief, and therefore their overall career records often mask how effective they were in relief.

Britton and Venters are examples of the first type, as they are active and have fewer than 300 innings pitched to date, so it may not be fair to include them.

Downs is a good example of the second type. As a reliever, his ERA was 2.68. As a starting pitcher, it was 5.35.

Miller is much the same way. Although he was a highly regarded prospect, he floundered for years as a starting pitcher with a 5.70 ERA and a 1.4 K/BB ratio. As a reliever, although he’s generally not filled a closer role, he found his groove, with a 2.56 ERA and a 3.9 K/BB ratio.

Gibbon and O’Dell didn’t have nearly as dramatic a split as Downs or Miller, but they were kind of similar to each other– they both were decent starting pitchers, generally mid-to-high 3.00 ERA’s, but posted much lower ERAs out of the pen.

If we were to continue down the ERA list, the next 4 names (all retired) would be:

Player	ERA
Don Mossi	2.77
Ron Perranoski	2.78
John Hiller	2.78
Jim Brewer	2.80

Yes! We have a Don Mossi sighting…..

Who has been particularly difficult to hit? Here are the hits/9 IP leaders among the 300 pitchers in the data set:

Player	H/9	IP
Aroldis Chapman*	4.93	478
Andrew Miller*	5.76	400
Ryan Buchter*	5.89	168
Billy Wagner	5.99	903
Tom Hall	6.18	473
Sean Doolittle*	6.34	328
Hung-Chih Kuo	6.43	224
Zach Britton*	6.43	291
Brad Hand*	6.62	307
Charlie Furbush	6.62	201

Again, that list is dominated by both active pitchers and pitchers with relatively few innings pitched. If we set a minimum of 400 relief innings pitched, we’d get this list:

Player	H/9	IP
Aroldis Chapman*	4.93	478
Andrew Miller*	5.76	400
Billy Wagner	5.99	903
Tom Hall	6.18	473
Mitch Williams	6.90	681
Pete Richert	7.00	405
B.J. Ryan	7.12	536
Tony Sipp*	7.20	482
Damaso Marte	7.24	503
Arthur Rhodes	7.25	865

Now, I know that these are relievers, and relief rate stats are typically more impressive than those of starters. However, it is worth noting that the stingiest pitcher (more than 1,000 innings) is Nolan Ryan, who allowed 6.56 hits per 9 innings. If you lower the threshold down to 400 innings, 2 active pitchers have allowed fewer than 5.0:

Craig Kimbrel – 4.82 in 532 innings

Aroldis Chapman – 4.93 in 478 innings

LOOGYs

As you probably know, LOOGY is an acronym for Left-handed One-Out GuY, indicating lefty pitchers that are primarily brought in to face one or two batters, often in the hopes of obtaining a short-term platoon advantage. While reviewing lefty relievers, I thought I’d take a crack at trying to identify who might be the best relievers that fit this description over the course of their careers.

I used a very simple ranking system across 4 categories that might be characteristic of such a pitcher. I decided to look for pitchers who faced relatively few batters per appearance, were typically not involved in either the decision or saving the game, and were seldom used to finish out a game.

I settled on the following categories:

Batters faced per game (low batters faced per game = high rank)
Innings pitched per game (similar to batters faced, but a slightly different metric)
Wins, losses, plus saves (low sum total of these = high rank)
% of games finished (low % of games finished = high rank)

I then added total relief games to give some weight to those that had longer careers.

I ranked each of the 300 pitchers across those categories, and then averaged the ranks. Here are the 10 pitchers that scored the "highest" using that system (minimum 300 IP), along with some of their key figures (remembering that we’re looking for pitchers that tended to have low figures in most of these categories).

LOOGY Rank	Player	G	IP	Batters Faced (BF)	BF/G	W	L	W+L+Sv	W+L+ Sv % of Games	Games Finished (GF)	GF/G
1	Randy Choate	672	408	1,750	2.60	16	14	37	5.5%	102	15%
2	Javier Lopez	839	533	2,273	2.71	30	17	61	7.3%	163	19%
3	Ray King	593	411	1,747	2.95	20	23	45	7.6%	97	16%
4	Marc Rzepczynski	483	310	1,349	2.79	8	19	29	6.0%	68	14%
5	Mike Myers	883	541	2,385	2.70	25	24	63	7.1%	195	22%
6	Boone Logan	635	442	1,970	3.10	30	23	56	8.8%	104	16%
7	Trever Miller	689	504	2,226	3.23	18	14	43	6.2%	133	19%
8	Tim Byrdak	479	339	1,525	3.18	13	13	30	6.3%	56	12%
9	Luis Avilan	399	308	1,284	3.22	19	10	31	7.8%	48	12%
10	Dennys Reyes	633	521	2,301	3.64	25	18	47	7.4%	120	19%

I’m pretty happy with those results. In terms of identifying pitchers that would qualify as a LOOGY, I think it’s a pretty good list. I searched for LOOGY references and articles on the internet, and the names that tended to emerge pretty well match the list above, with the possible exception of Jesse Orosco. He’s a bit of a special case…..he was a closer-type early in his career, but became a prominent LOOGY in his later years. John Candelaria would be another example of someone who transformed from another role (in his case, a solid starting pitcher) into a LOOGY-type late in his career.

Cream of the Lefty Crop

OK. So who would be the best career lefty relievers? I came up with another ranking system, this time spanning 10 categories. I tried to have a variety of categories covering a spectrum of potential excellence. Some were compiler-type categories (games, innings pitched), while others were rate categories (K/9, HR % allowed, etc.). Some (like K/9) really favor more recent pitchers as strikeouts have been rising. Others (like IP/G) tend to favor older relievers who tended to stay in the game longer. I was hoping for a decent representation across several decades.

Here are the categories I used:

Saves
Innings Pitched
Innings Pitched per Game
Strikeouts per 9 innings
Relief Games
ERA
WHIP
Strikeouts-to-Walk Ratio
% of Games Finished
HR Allowed % (HR allowed divided by batters faced)

I ranked each pitcher in each category, and then averaged the rankings. Here are the top 20 lefty relievers using this system, with the numbers in the column indicating where the pitcher ranked among the 300 pitchers in each category (a lower number indicating a higher rank). A lower "average rank" number implies a better/higher rank.

	Rank in Each Category
Player	Avg. Rank	Saves	IP	IP/G	K/9	Games	ERA	WHIP	K/W	GF%	HR %
Billy Wagner	40.4	2	15	149	3	10	4	2	3	1	215
Aroldis Chapman*	41.5	6	100	177	1	83	2	3	6	7	30
Tug McGraw	45.6	10	2	33	169	14	19	42	116	11	40
Jim Brewer	54.2	18	19	45	128	60	14	19	68	15	156
Randy Myers	55.1	3	25	130	37	24	61	84	62	3	122
Sparky Lyle	57.3	5	1	50	223	5	21	70	140	9	49
John Hiller	59.3	21	14	17	93	79	12	74	125	8	150
John Franco	61.9	1	5	135	149	3	24	118	116	10	58
Terry Forster	62.6	19	16	53	169	49	24	93	156	39	8
Gary Lavelle	64.4	17	8	65	185	18	19	112	161	43	16
Zach Britton*	65.6	16	215	161	53	173	1	5	19	2	11
Al Holland	67.1	38	55	47	119	125	21	22	75	30	139
Joe Sambito	67.7	34	52	99	144	98	36	27	43	24	120
Steve Hamilton	67.8	66	65	82	106	111	30	11	39	76	92
Willie Hernandez	68.0	13	12	86	156	21	68	34	63	34	193
Ron Perranoski	70.8	11	6	41	245	20	12	116	231	19	7
Jesse Orosco	73.3	14	3	159	75	1	52	55	104	99	171
Don Mossi	74.4	60	110	49	191	164	11	13	32	54	60
Steve Howe	74.8	31	51	117	263	80	38	26	61	50	31
Dave LaRoche	76.1	20	13	52	144	34	83	87	152	23	153

I think that’s a fair representation of the top lefty relievers of all time. Subjectively, I would probably have included Dave Righetti somewhere in the top 20 (he just missed, at #22), and I would probably have Franco ranked closer to the top, but overall I’m pretty happy.

Others that finished just outside the top 20 include B.J. Ryan, Bill Henry, Andrew Miller, Al Hrabosky, and Dan Plesac.

Some of the lefties that didn’t do real well by this method but who could be considered top 20 material include Brian Fuentes, Mitch Williams, Eddie Guardado, Joe Hoerner, and Darold Knowles. In Fuentes’ case, I don’t think I did enough to compensate for the fact that he pitched most of his career in Colorado. In doing my data pull, I didn’t see a way to bring in ERA+ as part of the "reliever-only" stats, which would have helped him.

Top Lefty Relievers of the Non-Closer Type

One other group I was interested in identifying was the top lefty relievers who were not primarily used in a closer capacity. They had bigger roles than the LOOGYs, but weren’t typically considered the "closer". I used the same categories as above, but limited to pitchers who had saves in fewer than 20% of their relief appearances, and who had fewer than 100 total career saves. 2 of the above group (Hamilton and Mossi) appeared in this group.

Here are the top relievers using this approach:

Player	G	IP	H/9	K/9	K/BB	SV	ERA
Steve Hamilton	404	553	7.26	7.6	2.5	42	2.93
Don Mossi	295	458	7.92	6.3	2.6	50	2.77
Andrew Miller	418	400	5.76	13.4	3.9	53	2.56
Wilbur Wood	354	565	8.00	5.1	1.9	57	2.71
Woodie Fryman	303	451	7.36	6.3	1.8	58	2.89
Bobby Shantz	366	705	7.58	6.0	1.7	48	3.20
Billy O'Dell	280	498	7.82	6.3	1.9	50	2.71
Paul Assenmacher	883	854	8.57	8.5	2.6	56	3.50
Gary Lucas	391	559	8.21	5.7	1.8	63	2.89
Paul Lindblad	623	1,045	8.22	5.0	1.8	64	3.10

The Cuban Missle

Billy Wagner comes out as the #1 lefty reliever by the method I used, and I do think that clearly he’s been the best lefty reliever in history. The question now becomes, then, can Aroldis Chapman surpass him?

I think he can.

Here’s how they compare through age 30 (Chapman’s current baseball age):

Players	IP	ERA	G	SV	H	ER	BB	K	WAR	K/9	K/BB
Aroldis Chapman	478.2	2.24	490	238	262	119	223	798	16.0	15.0	3.6
Billy Wagner	418.1	2.69	386	181	281	125	168	589	12.6	12.7	3.5

Chapman’s K/9 advantage is, in part, due to the nature of today’s game. Wagner through age 30 struck out 12.7 per 9 in a game where the average over that time span was about 6.6, while Chapman has been striking out 15.0 per 9 where the average over that time has been about 7.8. If you normalize both of their figures vs. the average for the time frame, they’re nearly identical (about 1.9 times the average). They’re both very impressive figures.

Chapman is about 50 saves ahead of Wagner at the same age, and he should have a lot of baseball ahead of him. Chapman has a pretty good ERA advantage through age 30, but that’s a little misleading as Wagner actually brought his career figure down significantly after age 30, as he ended up with a 2.31 career mark. In his years after turning 30, Wagner had a sparkling 1.99 ERA.

Nevertheless, I think Chapman has a decent shot at surpassing Wagner’s career performance. Chapman has been very consistent. If he continues to average around 35 saves a season, he’s a little over 5 years away from catching both Wagner and Franco in the saves department. Whether he has enough left to get to, say, 500 career saves (which would put him #3 all-time behind Rivera and Hoffman) is questionable.

Will he be able to become the first lefty to get elected to the Hall of Fame? My guess is, probably not. Relievers are one of the trickier positions to evaluate when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration. We had a run of them a while back, but after Rivera is elected, it could be a while before we see any others. Craig Kimbrel probably has the best shot of the active closers. Perhaps Kenley Jansen, too. Closers don’t seem to have the cache that they did a while back. The increasing reliance on metrics such as WAR I think tend to work against relievers, as it’s difficult to post impressive career figures when you pitch as few innings as modern closers do.

Chapman does have a leg up over Wagner in that he does have a championship ring with the Cubs in 2016, and he has generally pitched well in the postseason. Wagner, on the other hand, has a rather disastrous postseason record, which is one of the knocks frequently brought up against him.

Chapman just doesn’t strike me as being on a Hall of Fame track at this point. He’s notorious for the speed of his fastball, of course, and his K/9 rate is amazing, but others like Craig Kimbrel and Kenley Jansen are posting similar marks during this strikeout-happy era, which takes a little bit of the luster away.

He’s been very consistent, always seems to be in the mid-to-high 30’s in saves. He’s been outstanding, but I’d have to say Kimbrel has had more "eye-catching" seasons, and that could end up hurting Chapman. Also, there could be some lingering "character" questions related to the incident that led to his suspension a couple of years ago, and I suspect some voters would have some issues with that.

I do think he has an excellent shot at being recognized as the greatest lefty reliever ever. But, ultimately, I’m skeptical about his chances for the Hall.

Thanks for reading,

Dan

COMMENTS (16 Comments, most recent shown first)

shthar
Suppose the game had baserunners going clockwise around the bases, Would that make 3/4 of all infielders left handed?
1:27 PM Oct 23rd

evanecurb
An exceptionally skilled pitcher with one hand could never succeed in the major leagues because on balls hit to him, he would not be able to take off his glove and make throws. He would be bunted mercilessly and helpless to defend against it. Wait....Who? Abbott? Oh. Never mind.
11:59 AM Oct 23rd

astros34
Re: Billy Wagner, you ask and answer that he's probably the best lefty reliever of all time. Funny thing about that is he is a natural right-hander who learned to throw lefty because he kept fracturing his right arm. That makes his accomplishments even more amazing, to be able to exceed 100 MPH WITH CONTROL!

Why have there been no day-to-day catchers who were lefthanded? That's the one that bugs me.

If a guy had the talent of Andrelton Simmons or Ozzie Smith and were lefthanded, I still think he would still end up in centerfield or first base. My theory is that Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly were almost in that class defensively, didn't have the range for centerfield, and couldn't play regularly at third, so they ended up as phenomenal defensive first-basemen. Same for guys like Mike Jorgensen (who DID play a lot of OF) and Mike Squires (who played a few games at third).
10:19 AM Oct 23rd

Brock Hanke
I'm a lefty who has tried to play everywhere, although I always end up at catcher, because I'm slow as molasses. The hardest, for me, aside from speed issues in the outfield, were: 1) Second Base. The double play pivot is impossible. It's not just the turning to throw; it's the position you have to take to catch the ball thrown to you by the shortstop on the DP and THEN the pivot. 2) Shortstop. The impossible problem here is the ball hit in the hole. It's the longest throw you will have to make, and you have to spin like a top to make it. On the other hand, the DP pivot is EASIER for a lefty to make than it is for a righty. Actually, it's easier if the fielder feeding you the ball is the second baseman; it's harder if the ball comes from third. 3) Third Base. Actually, I would draw a line here. Third Base isn't impossible, because there is no real "ball in the hole" problem; those are foul balls and you don't have to throw anyone out. You also don't have to do DP pivots.

On a side note, I also spent 27 years doing an odd form of stick fighting, where you're outfitted like medieval knights. The organization has a tournament to determine the new "king" every 6 months. I finished second twice, and in the semifinals 6 other times, so I was pretty good. I always felt that it was an advantage to be a lefty in that sport. Well, one of my friends did a little research. Not only do lefties win a higher percentage of these tournaments than their 10% of the populace, they win FORTY PERCENT of those tournaments. It's a HUGE advantage in that sport, which is related to baseball only in that both require you to swing a stick.
4:37 AM Oct 22nd

DMBBHF
rwarn,

I think you make a good point, and really what you're saying is that just because there may be some fundamental, natural advantages for righty throwers as a group, it shouldn't prevent an individual with extraordinary skills from excelling at those positions if he can make all the necessary plays. The skill set is ultimately more important than the "handed-ness", assuming that the people who make the decisions are open-minded enough to consider the potential of the individual, rather than just the typical characteristics of the group.

Actually, a pretty good lesson for life..... :)

Dan
11:41 AM Oct 21st

rwarn17588
Thanks for the responses to my question, everyone. I thought natural positioning for the throw was the reason there aren't many lefties in the infield, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't some other reason I was missing.

At first blush, it DOES make sense why there are right-handed throwers at third, second and shortstop. But I very strongly suspect a skilled left-handed player would do fine at one of those positions with little to no dropoff in defensive efficiency. Bill James noted years ago he thought a skilled left-handed catcher would do fine behind the plate, but no one's given one a chance in the majors in a long, long time.

Let's put it this way: If you encountered a left-handed player with the defensive skills of Ozzie Smith or Andrelton Simmons, would you try to convert him to the outfield? The answer to that would be not just "no," but "Hell, no!"

I understand why baseball officials tend to do these things, but they tend to become hamstrung by tradition. I distinctly remember the skepticism of moving Cal Ripken to shortstop, saying he was too big and slow for the position. He didn't fit the profile of a speedy, small-ish shortstop. Ripken busted those stereotypes in a major way by being one of the best ever at his position.
11:09 AM Oct 21st

jdrb
It’s even more the awkwardness turning double plays— just imagine the contortions a left handed second baseman would go thru trying to turn the pivot.
11:30 PM Oct 20th

evanecurb
The reason there are no left handed infielders or catchers in the majors (except for first basemen) is that there are no left handed infielders in college, high school, AAU, little league, etc. I understand why it makes sense at the higher levels. But in amateur baseball, you should have your best fielders at catcher, shortstop, center field, and second base - regardless of which hand they throw with.
5:47 PM Oct 20th

Rich Dunstan
One of your best, Dan. Thanks!
4:47 PM Oct 20th

DMBBHF
rwarm,

I've always assumed the biggest factor is the awkwardness of throwing to first, which is the most common throw they have to make. When righties playing 2nd, 3rd or short field a ground ball, they're already essentially in position to make a more natural throw to first, with their feet pretty well in place. Lefties have an extra move to make to get their feet in proper position. It's certainly not impossible to play those positions and make those throws well as a lefty. I'm sure some players could execute it......it's just not mechanically as efficient for most players, and so I'm sure most baseball people tend to discourage lefties from trying to develop at those positions.

Dan
2:48 PM Oct 20th

rwarn17588
Dumb question: Why aren't any second basemen, shortstops, third basemen left-handers? I know the reason for catchers, but the lack of lefties on third-quarters of the infield never occurred to me until now.
1:07 PM Oct 20th

DMBBHF
Bruce,

Just noticed your observation on Fossas. Yes, I think he's another fully qualified LOOGY. He would have probably been included in the top 10 LOOGYs by this method except he had too many games that he finished (he "finished" the game in about 26% of his relief appearances, which was a lot higher rate than the others that made the list). If he had had a much lower rate, or if I had decided to exclude that metric in the method, I'm sure he would have been top 10.

Thanks,
Dan
12:46 PM Oct 20th

evanecurb
Al Holland grew up in Roanoke, VA and attended Lucy Addison High School, which was an inner city school in a town where baseball isn't that popular to begin with. Their team was terrible. In his senior year in high school (1971), he pitched multiple no-hitters and had an ERA of under 0.50 but a won lost record of 1-8. He had multiple innings where he struck out four batters with one reaching first on a passed ball. He went from Addison HS to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, where he led all NCAA pitchers in strikeouts. After college, he signed with Pittsburgh in 1975. After spending almost all of his Pirates' years in the minors, he was dealt to the Giants as part of the Bill Madlock trade, and finally made it the big leagues for good in 1980. He had his best year for the NL champion Phillies in 1983, receiving a few MVP and Cy Young votes. He made one all-star team, in 1984.
12:46 PM Oct 20th

DMBBHF
Bruce,

Thanks for the comments. Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for calling out Tom Hall. It's an interesting coincidence that you mentioned both Hall and Wayne Granger in the same observation about their skinniness, since they were traded for each other before the '72 season. :)

Thanks,
Dan
12:38 PM Oct 20th

evanecurb
I always think of Tony Fossas as the ultimate LOOGY. He debuted in the majors at age 30 and hung around through age 41. He appeared in 567 games, pitching 415 innings. His career mark was 17-14 with 7 saves.
12:36 PM Oct 20th

evanecurb
Dan:

I loved this article. Thank you. Given the dominance of bullpens in recent years, I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar names from the 60s and 70s.

John Hiller was a very interesting player. He pitched his entire career with the Tigers, and that career was interrupted by - of all things - a massive heart attack at age 27 that caused him to miss the entire 1971 and half of the 1972 season. In 1973, he set a new record for saves and posted a 1.44 ERA and a 283 ERA+ for a Tigers' team that wasn't really very good. He continued to pitch well through 1978, which was his age 35 season. He ceased being an effective pitcher in 1979, which was just a year or two before the Tigers became a good team again.

Tom Hall was, along with Wayne Granger and Kent Tekulve, one of the three skinniest good relievers of the 1970s. BB-Ref has him listed at 6 ft, 150. In the aggregate, I'd guess that Hall, Tekulve and Granger were over 18 feet tall and under 500 pounds.

Ron Perranoski had one of those pitching lines in 1963 that you don't see anymore from relievers - 16-3 for LA, with a 1.67 ERA. He was exceptionally durable, with over 100 innnings pitched in 7 of 8 seasons between 1962 and 1970.

12:30 PM Oct 20th

Portsiders in the Pen

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