Mickey Mantle: some odds and ends.

Baseball Digest, front cover, October 1961 issue.

I was looking at the stats for Roger Maris who retired the same year as his former Yankee teammate Mickey Mantle: 1968.  I noticed that after 1962 Maris qualified for league lead in averages (502 plate appearances (PA)) only once: 1964 - OPS+ 127.  Another reason that Maris should not be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Mantle in his final six seasons qualified three times:
1964: OPS+ 177 (led league)
1967: OPS+ 149 (7th)
1968: OPS+ 143 (8th)

Mantle's OPS+ was inflated in his final two seasons because for some bizarre reason he walked over 100 times despite the fact that his SLG had plummeted to .434, then .398 (only 13 points higher than his OBP).

The qualifying standard from 1945-1956 was:

"2.6 at bats per team game ... from 1951-1954 a player could lead if they still led after the necessary number of hitless at bats were added to their at bat total"

That meant 2.6*154=400.4.

In his final season (1951) Joe DiMaggio had 482 PA, OPS+ 116.  With different rules DiMaggio qualified in five of his last six seasons (not 1949).
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Nick Swisher tied Mark Teixeira at 13 for most games with at least one home run (HR) batting lefty and at least one home run (HR) batting righty.  Mantle had held that record for many seasons with 10.  Ken Singleton, a switch hitter himself, and others have speculated that The Mick may have had fewer opportunities since there were fewer pitching changes in Mantle's era.  Anyone know the number of opportunities for Mantle, Teixeira and Swisher?

Of course, Mantle walked the most of any switch hitter, which would decrease his opportunities.  Mantle had exactly 400 more walks than fellow 500 HR hitter Hall of Famer Eddie Murray and over 200 more than Chipper Jones, 468 HR.

The gross measure of opportunities is at bats (AB).  Swisher has only 4,748.  There are 72 switch hitters with at least 5,000 AB.  Pete Rose is tops with 14,053.  The highest for a HR hitter: Eddie Murray 11,336, number two on the list.  Mantle is number 14 with 8,102.  But a Swisher contemporary HR hitter is Chipper Jones, number 8 with 8,984.  Teixeira is number 47 with 5,717.

Percent v. righty pitchers:

Name	AB	HR
Mickey Mantle	65.69%	69.62%
Lance Berkman	76.27%	86.98%
Chipper Jones	71.81%	77.14%
Bernie Williams	68.73%	62.59%
Carlos Beltran	73.53%	70.45%
Reggie Smith	70.51%	79.94%
Eddie Murray	67.29%	71.83%
Bobby Bonilla	65.50%	63.07%
Ken Singleton	70.70%	75.82%
Roberto Alomar	71.89%	67.31%

Among top HR hitting switch hitters Mantle has the second lowest percent AB v. righty pitchers.  This would have given him more opportunities.  Unfortunately for him, Mantle played his home games in Yankee Stadium with a 457 foot power alley in left center and 461 in center.  Batting righty he homered in only one of every 19 AB at home compared with every 15 AB on the road, the same road rate when batting lefty.  His HR percent v. righty pitchers is four points higher than his AB percent.

AB percent v. righty pitchers:
Swisher: 63%
Teixeira: 69%

But what about all those walks?  Disadvantage Mantle.  Here is the percent of PA taken by AB:
Mantle: 82%
Swisher: 87%
Teixeira: 86%

Mantle had 41% more AB than Swisher and 29% more than Teixeira.  I don't have the data but it's difficult to imagine that Mantle had fewer opportunities to switch hit home runs in a game than either Swisher or Teixeira.

Swisher and Teixeira.  Go figure.