FG on Fox: Let’s Stop Screwing Left-Handers
After a two-decade stretch of offensive prowess, pitching is dominating Major League Baseball once again. The “Year of the Pitcher” has turned into the “Half Decade of the Pitcher” and at this point we might as well call it an era, because these changes don’t look like they’re going away any time soon. Whether it’s Felix Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw, or most recently Jose Fernandez, it seems like every team features a staff ace that used to be described as a once-in-a-generation talent. What was rare is now commonplace
As FOXSports’ own Rob Neyer has written on several occasions, the shift towards lower-scoring games has been a direct result of a rapidly increasing trend towards more strikeouts. 2013 set the record for highest average strikeout rate — 19.9% — but that isn’t really such an accomplishment anymore; the league has actually broken the all-time record for seasonal strikeout rate in each of the last six seasons.
And 2014 is just continuing the trend; the current league average strikeout rate of 20.8% would easily break the 2013 record. This is not a trend that seems to be peaking, only ever increasing, and at some point, MLB will be forced to confront the issue that the game is moving away from hit-it-and-run towards swing-and-walk-back-to-the-dugout. The league has shown that, if pitching begins to dominate too much, they will intervene to make things more equitable and move the sport back towards a more reasonable balance; after the 1968 season, they lowered the pitching mound, and in 1973, the American League adopted the Designated Hitter.
Things aren’t quite to those extremes yet, but the offensive levels of 1972 and 2014 maybe aren’t as different as you might think. The last year that pitchers had to bat in the AL, MLB as a whole hit .244/.311/.354; this year, MLB is hitting .248/.317/.389. There’s more power now than there was then, but the rate of hits and outs in the game are nearly equal to what they were before the DH existed. Having the National League adopt the DH would force offensive levels up, but it wouldn’t do much to turn the game away from its affection for strikeouts.
Instead, I’d like to suggest an alternative remedy that doesn’t require any new rules or any change to an existing rule. That alternative? Help Major League umpires move the strike zone back over the plate. More specifically, to make this adjustment when left-handed batters are at the plate.
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Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
My understanding was the LH strikezone started right on the plate on the inside, and then extended 3 inches to the outside. While the RH strikezone extended 1.5 inches off both sides. So they are the same sized strikezone, just in slightly different locations.
Shouldn’t it be solvable by LH’s standing 1.5″ closer to the plate than RHs?
I mean the whole thing is stupid, the strikezone should just be the strikezone and fixing it to give a consistent as possible zone is a great idea. I’m just not sure that LHH are actually disadvantaged compared to RHH, the area of the strike zone is the same and even if it’s in different places the hitters should know where it is.
It’s easier to foul off a pitch 1.5 inches off the inner half of the plate than it is a pitch 3 inches outside. The strike zones might be the same size, but shifting it away from left-handed hitters makes the hittable area smaller.
I concur with Brendan that the article should have discussed this. Your response may be correct, but the article should have hard data on it, covering both how many pitches that are thrown inside vs righties end up being thrown outside vs lefties and how successful each set of batters is when dealing with those pitches.
I suspect that the impact of this on the overall trend of lower offense in the league would be negligible.
“but shifting it away from left-handed hitters makes the hittable area smaller.”
Only if you assume the hitters are standing in the same place, which they’re not.
The batter’s box for LHH isn’t any closer to the plate than for RHH. I don’t know how you think they can just scoot on closer to the plate. Unless you think getting beaned all the time, Choo style, is a fair result too.
Getting hit more is a good result. It’s free bases.
Lefties have to cover the pitch 1.5″ in as much as righties have to cover the pitch 3″ in.
The zone is simply shifted. While they should address that, the hittable area is identical. If lefties choose not to move closer to the plate then righties, than they are causing the reduced hittable area, not the strike zone.
Based on the zone shifts, lefties should be able to stand 1.5″ closer to home and need the same effective inside (and outside) plate coverage.
” If lefties choose not to move closer to the plate then righties, than they are causing the reduced hittable area, not the strike zone.”
Really guy? Once is a typo, but twice, using each incorrectly?
Andrew, you’re criticizing two misspellings in a comment on FanGraphs. Really?
Cass – thanks but don’t worry about it.
I have a bit of a form of dyslexia where I will exchange words close to each other. Then/than or they’re/there/their or even four/for pairs are even worse when close together. I also randomly exchange an r with 5 at times (thankfully browser spellcheck helps catch this though)
I’m kind of used to comments like Andrew’s; on the internet it’s par for the course.
then you’re screwing lefties by making them more susceptible to HBPs. Either way, it’s not fair.
This bit about ease of fouling a pitch off. Is it true? A lot of hitters don’t like to “get tied up inside”. And if it were not true, then wouldn’t RHBs be the ones being screwed?