The Rays Cannot Hit Lefties
July 8th, 2009 | by Jason Collette |Even if you have only been a recent addition to the Rays universe, you have probably heard that phrase uttered quite a few times. I will admit to uttering it a few times myself in the past starting last year just from watching the Rays fail to score runs against many left-handers all the way through the World Series when Jamie Moyer shut the Rays down. Last night, a lefty making his major league debut held one of the most potent offenses in baseball to one measely run that came from a bases-loaded walk and tonight, the Rays face another lefty in Brian Tallet so I wanted to look at the numbers to see if the data supported what my eyes have seen.
According to the wonderful data at Baseball Reference, my eyes have doth deceived me – at least for 2009.
Right/Left Splits Last 2008 + 2009
| Split | AB | AVG | OPS | SB | SB% | tOPS+ | sOPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09vRHP | 1921 | .269 | .793 | 106 | 85% | 97 | 114 |
| 09vLHP | 944 | .271 | .827 | 19 | 63% | 106 | 119 |
| 08vRHP | 3862 | .267 | .774 | 99 | 72% | 104 | 108 |
| 08vLHP | 1679 | .246 | .721 | 43 | 80% | 91 | 93 |
tOPS+ is relative to the team’s overall OPS against each type of pitcher while sOPS+ speaks to the team’s performance relative to the major league average against each type of pitcher. Last year, the Rays most definitely had issues versus left-handed pitchers as they were bad as an entire team and seven percent below the league average with their performance against lefties. However, this year shows quite the opposite story. In fact, the Rays are actually better as a team when facing left-handed pitching and hit lefties nineteen percent above the league average. The Rays make up for the struggles against righties by running much more often than they do against lefties and at a much higher success rate. The fact the Rays run so rarely, and poorly, against lefties means there are not as many runners in scoring position as there are when the Rays are running against righties but it has not slowed down the offense’s ability to create offense. If we use the Runs Created per 27 outs formula, we find the Rays are creating 5.8 runs a game against lefties and 5.5 against righties compared to 4.4 and 5.1 respectively in 2008.
The next time you hear a Rays fan complain the Rays cannot hit lefties this year, tell them to quit living in the past.
Tags: splits, statistics
By Tommy on Jul 9, 2009
Brian Tallet found this out the hard way