JABO: Pablo Sandoval and When Switch-Hitting Isn’t Worth It
Almost three weeks ago, Pablo Sandoval did something extraordinary at the plate. To be fair, Sandoval often does interesting and unique things — mostly involving swinging at and hitting impossible pitches — so this might not come as a surprise. However, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill sort of Sandoval madness. I’ll allow a short looping film to begin to tell the story:
A few things happened here: he swung at the first pitch, it was high and inside, and he got jammed but still managed to hit a line drive. These are all things Sandoval routinely does, so you can’t be blamed if you think one of them is what we’re highlighting. The true answer? Sandoval faced a left-handed pitcher as a left-handed batter.
If that doesn’t seem like a big deal, consider this: Kung Fu Panda hadn’t batted from the left side against a left-handed pitcher before this at bat since 2011. For what it’s worth, both Sandoval and his manager John Farrell claimed he only batted as a lefty in this pinch-hit appearance because of a knee injury sustained by a hit by pitch a few days before. Still, the fact remains: Sandoval’s struggles as a switch hitter from the right side are well documented, and they’ve gotten remarkably worse this season. It says at least say something that he batted from the left side here, given his struggles.
So just how bad has it gotten when he’s in the right batter’s box? Sandoval has a .160 OPS mark as a right-handed hitter facing a left-handed pitcher this year. He owns a 2.1% walk rate and a 27.1% strikeout rate from that side. In other terms, he’s hit three singles in 46 at-bats with one walk. That’s about the equivalent offensive output of Kyle Kendrick in 2014, except that Kendrick is a pitcher, and he doesn’t bat near the middle of the order for the Red Sox.
Owen Watson writes for FanGraphs and The Hardball Times. Follow him on Twitter @ohwatson.
Panda’s an interesting case as he’s said to be virtually ambidextrous – so he might be someone who didn’t become a switch-hitter basically to cover up a serious weakness against same-handed pitchers.
He “taught” himself to be able to throw as a right-hander, in order to enable him to play the position of his childhood hero, Omar Vizquel, SS. So I guess “virtually ambidextrous” would be the right term.
And really, I think most kids learn to be switch-hitters because they know that most of the time, you get an advantage batting against the opposite throwing hand, not because they themselves were having a hard time against that side.
Just an FYI – JT Snow is another guy who abandoned switch hitting and went solely lefty. He ended up hitting about 100 points higher lefty against lefties over his career than righty (709 OPS v 605 OPS) so it worked out for him at least to some extent.
Whereas Bernie Williams never did. Here are his splits from 1993-98 (his age 24-29 seasons):
Batting lefty: .281/.364/.431 = .795 OPS, 13 HR/550 AB
Batting righty: .337/.417/.594 = 1.011 OPS, 33 HR/550 AB
In other words, as a righty, Bernie in his prime was basically Mike Trout.
I think this just goes back to Sandoval’s career long weight issues: whenever he had weight problems with the Giants, he was still able to hit RHP fine, but as a RHH, he had a hard time hitting LHP when he puts on too much weight. We saw it all through his career, starting in 2010, when a divorce, child custody fight, and mother’s near-death experience with the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, caused him to go on an eating streak, and he basically ate himself out of the starting lineup, freeing Bochy to start Renteria in the World Series. That issue would repeat itself in the news thereafter.
If people will recall, he came in with quite a gourd this spring, and when some outrage was registered, he and his new buddie$ mocked it by taking funny fat belly pictures, like it was some huge joke. Thus, many SF fans were not surprised to see that Sandoval was having problems with LHP, it is just what he does when he’s not watching his weight. I bet his new best friend Ortiz didn’t know that truism, that probably never came up in Pablo’s complaints. Boston is probably already regretting not putting a weight clause in his contract.
Apparently this was part of Sandoval’s issues with his former teammates in SF, they got on him for being overweight and not playing to his immense potential (see his 2011 season when he got into shape, then compare to his 2013-2014 seasons), and apparently his feelings got hurt enough that he dissed everyone, including all his Venezuelan buddies on the team, by saying he had only two friends on the team, Pence and Bochy.
He’s always been a big kid in attitude, but he’s going to learn that $20M is going to result in a lot of responsibilities that he eschewed while with the Giants. For example, even though the Giants were on the hook for roughly $15M for the next two seasons, at that time, he told the media that he felt he could wait two years to start getting into shape; luckily for him, his agent heard that unwise statement and told him to get into shape sooner because he was playing for a contract in the following season. Soon his brother learned to be a chef, took over his food preparation, and he started losing weight. He’s going to find that his new friends are going to be unkind if he’s not in shape and helping the team.
Richard Simmons over here!
Is there any truth to the perception that, in recent years, good players become bad when they arrive on the Red Sox, and become good again when they leave?
You always hear about how when we some guys come and play in New York or Boston they can’t hack it because of the extra “pressure” of the big, avid fan bases and the increased media scrutiny. Plus, since Boston and The Yankees have been able to outspend basically any other team over the past two decades it usually means they are joining their new teams with the pressure of living up to that monster contract you just signed.
Ultimately, I don’t tnink there is much of a difference. Guys go to other teams and flame out all the time. Guys have up and down seasons, it happens.
Pablo has played the biggest stage in baseball numerous times. He knows about pressure. I think his performance this year is more of a mix of injuries, weight problems, fitting into a totally new clubhouse and culture. Hopefully it’s not because he lacks motivation to play as hard since he has that big contract now that he has been playing for his whole career.
It could also be that it is still June and that he has been known to be a streak hitter in the past. If he goes on a month long offensive fear then all of this will be completely forgotten.