Mickey Mantle switch hitting had a career batting average (BA) percentage difference (14.85%) v. lefty/righty pitchers greater than any prominent righty batter since 1950 when lefty/righty splits become reliable. This is more evidence that Mantle should have batted right handed exclusively.
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Mantle also had the biggest point difference: .330-.281=.-049.
Lou Piniella was the only righty batter with a percent difference over 10%: 14.7%.
| Name | Bats | righties | lefties | L-R | Dif/L |
| Alex Rodriguez | R | .303 | .290 | .013 | 4.48% |
| Willie Mays | R | .300 | .305 | -.005 | -1.64% |
| Vladimir Guerrero | R | .316 | .322 | -.006 | -1.86% |
| Harvey Kuenn | R | .300 | .308 | -.008 | -2.60% |
| Albert Pujols | R | .320 | .331 | -.011 | -3.32% |
| Edgar Martinez | R | .308 | .322 | -.014 | -4.35% |
| Rey Ordonez | R | .305 | .322 | -.017 | -5.28% |
| Al Kaline | R | .292 | .310 | -.018 | -5.81% |
| Hank Aaron | R | .299 | .318 | -.019 | -5.97% |
| Mike Piazza | R | .303 | .323 | -.020 | -6.19% |
| Paul Molitor | R | .300 | .322 | -.022 | -6.83% |
| Kirby Puckett | R | .311 | .337 | -.026 | -7.72% |
| Julio Franco | R | .291 | .316 | -.025 | -7.91% |
| Tommy Davis | R | .284 | .311 | -.027 | -8.68% |
| Manny Ramirez | R | .305 | .335 | -.030 | -8.96% |
| Roberto Clemente | R | .308 | .340 | -.032 | -9.41% |
| Derek Jeter | R | .305 | .338 | -.033 | -9.76% |
| Lou Piniella | R | .267 | .313 | -.046 | -14.70% |
| Mickey Mantle | B | .281 | .330 | -.049 | -14.85% |
Alex Rodriguez confounds by being the only one of the 18 righty batters with a higher BA against righty pitchers than against lefty pitchers
. Willie Mays is next in percent difference. Hank Aaron is in the middle of the pack. Mays and Aaron are really Mantle's only peers and I will be comparing the three in future posts using both real Mickey and Twilight Zone (TZ) Mickey, i.e., Mickey batting only righty.
The righty batters were chosen from previous posts because they had:
- highest BA v. righty pitchers
- highest BA v. lefty pitchers; that's how the likes of Piniella were included.
3 comments:
I'm not sure that I can see an argument here against Mantle's switch-hitting. Mantle's OBP is .419 against right-handers and .424 against left-handers. That's not a lot of difference. Compare that to Willie Mays' much larger .373/.410 split. Mantle was simply a more selective hitter from the left side of the plate.
I think teams were necessarily concerned about Mickey against righty pitchers on the road, where Yankee Stadium is not a factor. Mick's BA road splits: v. lefties .338; v. righties .271.
Road AB/HR: v. lefties 15.15; v. righties 15.33. Slightly better v. lefties.
I think Mick's big AB/HR advantage v. lefties in YS (13.12 to 19.5) carried over to the road. This guy clobbered us at YS, so let's just walk him. That accounts for the career OBP being so close from both sides.
Should have been:
I think teams were UNnecessarily concerned ...
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