Yikes. Last year he showed signs of becoming a competent hitter from the right side (.803 OPS), but this year, he has once again tanked from the right side, and it is single-handedly killing his overall batting average. The perception is he's had an off year, but he's still as good as ever from the left side: .294 BA, .445 OBP, .546 SLG, .991 OPS Yet on the right side: .207 BA, .264 OBP, .342 SLG, .606 OPS Sigh... no need to adjust your eyes BrooksBall, his OPS is worse than... that's right... Kaz Matsui (.625). I've said for awhile that Berkman should just remain a lefty hitter, and that his switch hitting is damaging his career numbers. I thought I had to eat crow last year, but this year he's back to his old struggling ways from the right side. Of course, he'd have to adjust to seeing the ball from the left side coming from LHP, but it's something worth taking the time to getting used to, whether it takes an entire spring training, or even an entire season. His plate discipline is better from the left side, and we know he can hit to all fields with power. Thoughts?
Who is to say that Berkeman would do better against lefties batting left handed? I am just saying ...
That's a completely legit thought. His career numbers from the right side aren't completely awful by any means, just relatively bad for a guy of Berkman's caliber. I would still like to see how he would do strictly hitting from the left side over a full season but I doubt he'll ever make the change.
I know it's an unreasonable comparison but check out Pujols' career OPS splits against RHP/LHP: 1.044/1.095 Always batting righthanded, he's nearly as good against RHP as LHP. Of course, he's a freak.
I'm guessing he'd do better than a .606 OPS. Yes, he should absolutely abandon switch hitting. He's hurting the team because every team brings in a scrub left hander to turn him around late in the game and it is working a very high percentage of the time. It would be better if he could at least draw some walks, but he doesn't do that as much right handed.
That is why I'm not voting. Not that he can hit much worse than he has this year, but he has always been better than this.
why would you guess that? Based on what? He could easily do WORSE... or be the same. It makes no sense to have higher expectations without any test results. I mean sure, he knows how to swing the bat lefty.. but against a left-handed pitcher, it's a brand new event that isn't predictable by any means..
If we go down this road ... and it turns out Lance struggles left on left ... do we make him a platoon player at first?
I think the Crawford Boxes would play even more into his advantage batting lefty vs. a lefthanded pitcher. I would love to see him do it for a full season in '10.
Given that he's historically been able to hit lefties okay, even if it's not on par with his ability to hit righties, I'm willing to say this season's stat is an outlier. And it's unlikely Berkman will change this late in his career. He might give it a try next year's spring training, but I really doubt it will be a serious change.
I was a switch hitter from little league up until 5A High School baseball. It's hard to understand unless you've experienced it, but it's not that easy to just stop hitting from one side after all those years. There is a big difference in being able to pick up the ball out of a pitchers hand. The batter has the advantage everytime when you're a switch hitter. There's no telling when the last time he saw a lefty from the left side of the plate. Would he be okay based on athletic ability alone? I would say yes, but I seriously doubt he would be any better. Historically I don't think switch hitters that dropped one side of the plate were any better off than before. The biggest advantage is having a breaking ball break at you instead of away from you. With major league pitching this is a HUGE advantage. He has proven that he can do it from the right side of the plate, no reason for him to just stop in my opinion.
Has Berkman ever hit lefty on lefty in his life? Has any major leaguer ever done this and pulled it off successfully? If not, it is a pretty far fetched proposal to be able to pull that off at this stage in his career. In fact, I would wager that if he were to take it up, it is probably that his OPS lefty v. left would be less than righty v. lefty for at least a season or two, and by the time he adjusted, even if he could adjust, he would be on the downside of his career.
JT Snow is one guy who did it after a few years in the Majors. Others have abandoned it early in their careers.
A natural lefty becoming a switch hitter is such a rare deal, anyway. There are definite advantages to hitting from the 1st base side of the plate. J.T. Snow gave up switch hitting after several seasons in the bigs. Snow was a natural lefty, like Lance. His career #s show that the move definitely helped him. .605 OPS as right hander vs. lefties, .709 OPS as lefty vs. lefty.
