A couple of days ago, I saw some tweets on Twitter. Well, I still call it “Twitter” since I’m used to it. And, I saw an interesting tweet, someone indicated that a team’s front office actually made a great decision to acquire a player before the trade deadline.
Ozzie Albies is an All-Star hitter from the Atlanta Braves. By far this season, he’s hitting .267/.327/.514 with 28 home runs and 90 RBI. He’s a switch hitter and this season, there’s a big problem for him. Against right-handed pitchers, he already crushed 23 home runs, but his OPS is below .800. Nonetheless, he’s hitting well against lefties. He now bats .389/.408/.642 with 5 home runs and 18 RBI while facing southpaws.
At the same time, Bo Bichette has another good season. To date, he slashes .318/.348/.494 with 18 home runs and 61 RBI. Against righties, his batting average is over .300 and has an OPS over .800. And, against lefties, he hits even better with a batting average over .360 and an OPS over 1.000.
In addition, it’s certainly not a good season for the Nationals. However, Lane Thomas is surely the most consistent hitter in the Nationals lineup. He currently slashes .284/.333/.473 with 20 home runs and 69 RBI across 127 games. Against lefties, he has a batting average of .348 and his OPS is over .900. Meanwhile, not so far from Washington D.C., Ryan Mountcastle is another hitter who hit well against left-handed pitchers with a batting average over .340. Nonetheless, against righties, Mountcastle’s batting average is only .230.
Moreover, Freddie Freeman has a tremendous season. He currently slashes .336/.412/.576 with 23 home runs and 85 RBI. Freeman is one of the NL MVP favorites and there’s a good reason. As a left-handed batter, he isn’t afraid of facing left-handed pitchers and he’s hitting even better. Freeman’s batting average is over .340 against lefties and he has an OPS over 1.000. Against right-handed pitchers, he has a .331 BA and an OPS over .900.
Finally, let’s take a look at some interesting cases. Jeremy Pena, Tim Anderson and Anthony Rizzo each have a batting average over .330 against lefties. However, against right-handed pitchers, Jeremy Pena’s batting average is only .213 and Tim Anderson only hits .211. At the same time, as a left-handed batter, Anthony Rizzo only bats .220 against righties.
Without doubt, Bo Bichette and Freddie Freeman are good hitters and they just hit well whether the pitchers are lefties or righties. However, for some batters, they might be good choices to bat against lefties only. For example, Tim Anderson and Jeremy Pena, they don’t have a great 2023 season, but they do hit well against lefties with a BA over .300. Meanwhile, Ozzie Albies is now on the IL, but he has hit well against lefties this season. However, against righties, he’s not doing that well. He’s a switch hitter, perhaps, he has to make some changes?
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