A plea: Right Only Ozzie! Please?

rico43

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
This is not an original thought or a new topic of debate, but it is more obvious than ever that Albies is far more dangerous batting right-handed.

Breaking down this year's numbers:

Batting righty in 2021: .323-9-31 in just 144 at-bats. 20 Ks.
Batting lefty in 2021: .234-14-55 in 363 at-bats. 84 Ks.

He's batted four times righty vs RHP and is 1-for-4. That one hit was a 3-run homer.
 
rico43 said:
This is not an original thought or a new topic of debate, but it is more obvious than ever that Albies is far more dangerous batting right-handed.

Breaking down this year's numbers:

Batting righty in 2021: .323-9-31 in just 144 at-bats. 20 Ks.
Batting lefty in 2021: .234-14-55 in 363 at-bats. 84 Ks.

He's batted four times righty vs RHP and is 1-for-4. That one hit was a 3-run homer.
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That 1-4 3 run homer was off a SS pitching so take that with a grain of salt.
 
I think at one point I saw a breakdown from someone (maybe Enscheff?) that assumed Ozzie would have a similar (or slightly worse) right on right platoon split as the average player. With that as part of the equation, it was clear that he would be better off hitting right handed full-time. That said, it doesn't seem like it has ever even been discussed as a serious option? Given that Ozzie is 24 and has a career .750 OPS as a lefty, I can understand why they might salivate over what he could be as a switch hitter in his prime to the point that they'll continue having him push towards that potential.

Ozzie is much better hitting left handed than Mullins ever was hitting right handed, but maybe Mullins could be somewhat of an inspiration for giving up switch hitting.
 
McCann'sCans said:
I think at one point I saw a breakdown from someone (maybe Enscheff?) that assumed Ozzie would have a similar (or slightly worse) right on right platoon split as the average player. With that as part of the equation, it was clear that he would be better off hitting right handed full-time. That said, it doesn't seem like it has ever even been discussed as a serious option? Given that Ozzie is 24 and has a career .750 OPS as a lefty, I can understand why they might salivate over what he could be as a switch hitter in his prime to the point that they'll continue having him push towards that potential.

Ozzie is much better hitting left handed than Mullins ever was hitting right handed, but maybe Mullins could be somewhat of an inspiration for giving up switch hitting.
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Yeah, that's exactly what I did.

Most switch hitters are better as a LHH because they see many more quality RHP their entire career. Additionally, the LHH vs LHP platoon penalty is much worse for a LHH than it is for RHH vs RHP, so it doesn't usually make sense for a guy like Chipper to become strictly a LHH (which was certainly discussed often).

But Albies is this odd duck we rarely see (much stronger as RHH), so I suspect he will do better as a RHH vs RHP based on how amazing he is vs LHP.
 
I was interested to hear Chipper mention on TV earlier in the season that the hitting coaches had had serious discussions about Ozzie giving up switch-hitting, and decided against it. He didn't really give an explanation.
 
rico43 said:
Would be happy for them to be added here. I know my metric limitations.
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Albies 2021 xwOBA vs LHP: .374 (excellent middle of the order type force)
Albies 2021 xwOBA vs RHP: .313 (slightly below average bottom of the order bat)
Albies 2021 xwOBA delta: 63 points

MLB 2021 xwOBA RHH vs LHP: .326
MLB 2021 xwOBA RHH vs RHP: .307
MLB 2021 xwOBA delta: 19 points

So the average MLB RHH loses 19 points in xwOBA without the platoon advantage, but Albies loses 63 points when he turns around to be a LHH.

Assuming Albies suffers the usual platoon delta of 19 points, he would theoretically post a .355 xwOBA as a RHH vs RHP. This is a massive improvement over his current .313 mark. Even if he suffers 2x the penalty of an average RHH, his mark vs RHP would still be much better at .336.

I'm sure some dinosaur somewhere told the little 5'4" SS to learn to bat LHed so he could slap balls around and "use his wheels to get on base". Problem is, Albies actually turned into a 5'6" 2B with plus power as a RHH (which nobody could have reasonably predicted), and he should be that impact RHH all the time. The input data changed over the last 5 years as Albies matured physically, and it no longer makes sense for him to be a switch hitting scrappy hitter trying to slap his way on base.
 
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Wonder if a sore knee will make him try to hit RH for a bit. So he is not planting on the hurt leg. Doubt it. But it would be lol to see him go full righty.
 
Unless you're naturally ambidextrous or flat out can't hit off speed pitches well I don't think switch hitting is worth the extra effort.
 
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