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.
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1 comment:
In 1966 Mantle didn't have enough plate appearances to count, but his .288 batting average would have put him in the top five in the entire league. His slugging would have put him in a virtual tie for third place. That is not a "tack on" season.
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