Friday, April 19, 2013

Mickey Mantle was a great right handed hitter.

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 GS PA AB R 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).

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