Left vs Left

Pinch-hitting is very often in a baseball game. MLB Managers decide to let a left-handed pinch hitter hit against a right-handed pitcher or let a right-handed hitter hit against a lefty, we might see managers make this type of substitutions several times in a game. However, when you have some of the top left-handed hitters in the majors, you don’t need to worry.

At the beginning of the 2020 season, fans were talking about Charlie Blackmon and would like to see whether he could finish hitting .400 during the regular season. Well, Blackmon was hitting .303/.356/.448 last season. That was not that close to .400. But, in 2020, Blackmon was batting .375 against left-handed pitchers. Blackmon had 30 hits against lefties, leading the majors. Meanwhile, Blackmon’s teammate Raimel Tapia was good at hitting against lefties and had a batting average of .364 last season. Back in 2019, Tapia was hitting .277 against lefties. Juan Soto is surely one of the most dangerous hitters in the league and he doesn’t have any problems at hitting against lefties. His batting average against lefties was .360 in 2020 and he blasted 5 homers against left-handed pitchers. In the top 5, we also see Alex Verdugo and Jeff McNeil. Last season was a breakout season for Alex Verdugo. He was traded to the Red Sox and had more opportunities. He’s pretty good at hitting lefties and he batted .327 in 2019 and .320 last season when facing lefties. Jeff McNeil from the New York Mets was an All-Star in 2019 and he also posted an over .300 BA against left-handed pitchers.

When we look at xwOBA, Juan Soto had an xwOBA of .415 against lefties. The quality of Soto’s contact against left-handed pitchers was really good. 2020 was a disappointing year for Christian Yelich, who won the 2018 NL MVP and was hitting .205/.356/.430 last season. However, Yelich was still hitting very well against lefties since he batted .293 and had an xwOBA of .414. The Brewers fans should still have confidence in him. Brandon Lowe crushed 6 home runs against lefties last season and his xwOBA was .400. He did hit against lefties much better than he did in 2019. Lowe was hitting .242 and had an xwOBA of .235 against lefties in 2019. Hitting against lefties is not a problem for Lowe anymore. Mike Yastrzemski’s xwOBA against lefties was .398 and he crushed 5 homers, one homer was given up by Clayton Kershaw. Corey Seager had a great 2020 postseason since he won the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP. In the postseason, Seager blasted 8 homers and 5 homers were against lefties. During the regular season, Seager’s xwOBA against lefties was .390 and had 4 homers. Yes, Corey Seager did hit more home runs against lefties in the 2020 postseason than he did in the regular season. If a manager has one of these great left-handed hitters in the lineup, he definitely won’t have to worry whether opponents will have a left-handed pitcher on the mound. Besides, there are also many good left-handed hitters, who can hit lefties well, such as Bryce Harper, Dominic Smith and Michael Conforto.