38 thoughts on “Around the System–Middle Infield”

1. IMO, Roman ditch the switch-hitting, proven by people on this site, adds nothing to overall BA/OBP…in fact may be deter. but old- baseball people love switch-hitters. Other then the Mantles, Reggie Smiths, and Eddie Murrays of the world, the power guys, really of no advantage. Stick to the right side Roman.

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   1. Proven by who as to what. Based upon some Bull analysis of everyone who ever swung a bat. Based upon averaging out from a spurious base what woulda’ shoulda; coulda’ happened and assuming everything remains the same otherwise. Prove that no player , other than the 3 big names mentioned would have had a less productive batting record batting R On R or L on L as opposed to R on L or L on R.
      Don’t know why this hiding behind anonymous thing persists when the handle of “The Foremost Baseball Authority in the Delaware Valley” ; John from the Philly Northeast was perfectly acceptable.

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      1. The bloviated closed-minded Marfius speaks again! How about some of your famous predictions, haven’t heard them in awhile. …..John Doe, happy now ass-wipe

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         1. Mike Schmidt was a switch hitter in the minors & the made him only hit Right handed, good thing he concentrated on only hitting right handed through 500+ HR

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      2. I could not agree more marfis.

         I believe the fact that Left-Right Splits clearly show that from which side of the plate you bat vs a pitcher clearly matters.

         That being said, one must also look at a Switch-Hitters spits when batting from the otherside.

         Some hitters may be able to bat nearly as well from the other side so that hitting is weaker than the natural L/R split. In other cases it may be greater than the natural L/R split. I think it’s quite foolish to make a universal statement about Switch-Hitting, though one may be able to analyze a particular player and wonder if it hurts them.

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   2. Disagree. A speed merchant like Quinn should bat left-handed as often as possible. It gives him an edge in beating out infield hits and legging out doubles and triples. He should certainly give it some time before giving up. Incidentally, many people felt that Mickey Mantle should not have batted left-handed at all, because, although his left handed power was great, he did not hit for as good an average left-handed (.281) as compared to right-handed (.330) throughout his career. However, Mantle was encouraged to switch hit by his father and he refused to change despite pressure from other people.

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      1. SIFPA says…’he did not hit for as good an average left-handed (.281) as compared to right-handed (.330) throughout his career’…seriously…..281 is pretty darn good to most, especially since his last 3/4 years of his career it brought his average down significantly when he waa aging and his body was deterioting….anyway its my opinion and isn’t this website about people’s opinions whether one accepts or rejects.

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         1. …and I believe SIFPA was simply stating his opinion, which you apparently don’t agree with. He was not being confrontational in any way.

            My opinion…switch hitting is really hard. A lot of guys don’t actually start switch hitting until they are in the minors/professional ball and struggle mightily at the start. If he can continue to work at it and improve, then he should stick with it. If after another couple hundred at bats his numbers still look terrible, then he should ditch it. In the mean time, he’s 19 and doing it for the first time. I’d suggest giving him some time to figure it out.

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         2. .281 is good, but it is not as good as .330 . A serious drop-off from right-handed to left-handed. In the last 3/4 years of his career both his right and his left side were aging together, so that is irrelevant.

            “…anyway its my opinion and isn’t this website about people’s opinions whether one accepts or rejects.” My oh my! I thought that this was supposed to be a discussion, not a monologue. Sorry.

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            1. In baseball’s entire history through 2011, there have been 58 individual player seasons in which a switch-hitter qualified for the batting title and posted an OPS+ of at least 150. To no one’s surprise, Mickey Mantle claims the most significant number of these seasons, with 11. Lance Berkman owns the second most (six), and Chipper Jones and Eddie Murray are tied for the third most, with five apiece. After those four titans of switch-hitting, a pair of somewhat underrated ballplayers — Ken Singleton and Reggie Smith — check in with four and three seasons, respectively. Right behind Smith is Carlos Beltran, who posted his first 150 OPS+ season in 2006, when he had a 150 with 41 homers and 18 steals. Five years later — while splitting time between the Mets and Giants — Beltran authored a career best 155, while powering out 22 home runs and building four stolen bases into his career total. Add up all of this work, toss in his additional output from his Rookie of the Year campaign in 1999, his near 40-40 season in 2004, his wonderful start to 2012 (Beltran currently owns a 166 OPS+, 19 home runs and seven stolen bases) and everything else he has done at the Major League level, and one arrives at some wonderfully impressive conclusions or realizations.
               Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones has announced that he will be retiring at the end of this season, which is sure to spark debates about where he ranks among the greatest switch hitters of all time. This brings up the question, however, of the importance of such a skill. After all, a rundown of the greatest hitters of all time reveals no switch hitters: Ruth, Bonds, Mays, Aaron, DiMaggio, etc. The consensus greatest switch hitter of all time is Mickey Mantle, a player as associated with grace and athleticism as with pure hitting skill. All that being said, though, switch hitting is an insanely difficult skill that deserves to be commended. Hitting itself is said to be the most challenging thing to do in sports. Swings take years to develop; each aspect of a hitter’s body must be moving in perfect synchronization. If one part of it is even slightly off, the entire motion is wasted and the hitter won’t make solid contact. Guys take hours of batting practice in the batting cage and on the field every week and still only get hits three out of 10 times. No other sport has that low of a success rate. If quarterbacks only completed 30 percent of their passes, they’d be out of the league. If basketball players only hit 30 percent of their shots, they’d be out of the league. And yet, if a baseball player gets a hit 30 percent of the time, he’s an All Star. That number alone speaks to the immense challenge that hitting a baseball truly is. Now, take that difficulty and double it. Switch hitters must work twice as hard for a simple reason: they have two swings. Let’s say Player X develops a hitch in his swing and spends an hour in the cage trying to fix it. He’d likely be able to get his mechanics back where he wanted them in that amount of time. But let’s say that Player X was a switch hitter, and the hitch was in his right-handed swing. And let’s say that in his left-handed swing, his hands were dropping before the pitch. Now he has to spend another hour in the cage working on raising his hands. All of this is to say that for all the work hitters put in, switch hitters have to do twice the amount because they have two different swings. Nor can anyone do it, either. For whatever reason, some people are simply more capable of swinging from both sides of the plate. Some people pick it up early, some not until they become pros; some do it voluntarily, some are asked to by their team. The minor leagues are littered with examples of position players who tried to switch-hit and failed. Even guys who are successful often have different looking swings from each side of the plate, because they were unable to translate the mechanics of their natural side over to the other batter’s box. Sometimes people with fluid and beautiful swings from the left side have choppy and violent swings from the right side. Some guys (like Chipper Jones) even use differently weighted bats from each side of the plate, which adds to the difficulty of retraining their muscles.

               With all the obvious difficulties and possible pitfalls, the obvious question of “why do it” is raised. There are a number of reasons. Sometimes right-handed speedsters like to be able to start a step closer to first base. Sometimes hitters are jumpy on arm-side (righty vs. righty or lefty vs. lefty) breaking balls, and it’s easier to stand in on balls breaking towards them so they switch to the other side. Sometimes, it’s even just simply a competitive challenge. Baseball history teaches us that simply swinging from both sides of the plate doesn’t guarantee identical results, which supports the assertion that each side is different.

               Lance Berkman, for instance, has an ISO (isolated power, which measures raw power through extra bases per at bat) 120 points higher from the right side than he does from the left side. However, his K% is lower from the left side than the right side.

               For whatever reason, some players develop swings that are more conducive to power or contact from each side. Switch hitting itself is such a unique skill that no one really knows how to value it. It appears to be something that people are simply either good at or not. That doesn’t mean that it should be dismissed, though. It takes an incredible amount of dedication and thousands of hours of working through frustration and retraining muscles to respond in ways that they’re just not used to. Quarterbacks don’t teach themselves to throw left-handed. Basketball players don’t shoot free throws with their off hand. And yet, some baseball players decide to hit from both sides of the plate. They aren’t any more or less valuable than guys who excel from one side of the plate. But they should be appreciated for their level of talent and dedication and the sheer amount of work they put in.

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               1. I don’t think the Phil’s would have Roman try it if they didn’t think it would help. I read the first and last sentense of anny. It will help a speed guy. You don’t know how a guy would have done if he hadn’t taken up swith hitting. The almighty curveball is somewhat nolified by switchhitting. Most good basketball players use their left hand if they are right handed..

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               2. So you are familiar with German philosophy from the 18th century, interesting man you marfis.

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               3. Assuming he stays at SS, you don’t have to have anywhere near a OPS+ of 150 to be an all-star as a switch hitter, or even an MVP. The Phils should know this more than most teams.

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               4. You should at least give credit to the article you plagiarized this from. Anyway, you forgot to mention the most important thing from the article, and that is from the beginning of baseball only 6% of non-pitchers have been switch hitters. So, OF COURSE there will fewer total seasons of great offensive numbers. There are less opportunities to post said numbers.

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      2. +1

         Hitting from the left side shaves two-tenths of a second off the average time to first — probably more with Quinn’s speed. That may not sound like much, but if you think about the sheer number of bang-bang plays to first you see on a daily basis, it adds up.

         Also, switch-hitters give headaches to opposing managers looking to bring in specialists late in games.

         I see no reason not to give Quinn every opportunity to learn switch-hitting. It’s not keeping him off the basepaths, so have at it.

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         1. With that elite speed if he can pick up hitting left handed there are so many positives to come of it. Hey if it is not working he can always just stop. from the left side he can become a slap hitter ala Pierre and be a game changer. To me it is not about switch hitting so much as it is about his approach situationally where he can use his speed as an advantage, and not waste it on missed fastballs down the middle popped up to the infield (Jroll and Vic i am looking straight at you).

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         2. Actually, Quinn’s speed would mean shaving *less* time off by switch from right-handed to left-handed. The advantage in being a lefty is a shorter distance; a righty takes longer to get to first because of the extra few feet. Since Quinn is really fast, he’s going to take less time to travel that extra few feet. So that’s a smaller advantage gained by going to the left-handed batter’s box.
            Still, your main point that he’s fast and even faster from the lefty’s box holds, of course.

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            1. He is what, 19 years old, in his first professional season. There is no reason to abandon the switch-hitting at this age, in Low A, in his first professional season. If he was 25, still in the minors, and still having the same splits, perhaps he should consider giving it up. Right now, his development is the key and if he can learn to hit RHs better, it will benefit the Phils (and Quinn). I would seriously doubt that any difficulty he has with RHs right now impacts any other aspect of his development, so give him a chance to work through it.

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            2. Gee thanks for sharing that..

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      3. Mick had an incentive to continue hitting lefty. Yankee Stadium HUGELY favored lefty hitters before its renovation. Ultimately though Mantle’s OBP, SLG and OPS were about the same from both sides so it didn’t make much of a difference.

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   3. I would like to see Rollins and Vic hit just right handed. [sarcasm] They probably wouldn’t be iin the major leagues.

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2. Unfortunately for Troy Hanzawa the baseball season is long and we tend to reach our balance over the long haul. Even .250 is good for Troy and he really stepped it up early when the team needed it. Good for him. He is doing as well as the other middling infielders the system has provided for the upper levels. He will probably become an infield fixture for the minors, which is not bad.
   I think Frandsen did himself in by creating doubts with his fielding in Spring Training when the manager was looking at him every day. Actually his fielding is no worse than what they have at the major level.

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   1. I was in Trenton the other night. Troy is flawless in the field and is a steading factor for Hernandez as they turned two smooth dp’s. He also battles at the plate. He is so small and thin he probably will not make the majors, but playing at AAA is not out of the question. Those kinks of players will in the spots in orgs.

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3. Tyler Greene Williamsport: “… Hitting .225 /.255 / .315 with a Hewitt like 43% K rate.
   Anthony Hewitt Williamsport: 2009 .223 / .255 / .355, with a 31% K rate.

   Hewitt takes enough criticism on his own merits, without making him the standard for futility. Hewitt has never K’d at the rate Tyler Greene has.
   From now on, a bad K rate should be ‘TylerGreenesque’.

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   1. If Tyler Greene is still K’ing at that rate 5 years into his career like Hewitt is, then we’ll make the comparison. One month into his 19-year-old season is at best an unfair comparison.

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      1. Actually it’s not one month into his 19 year old season. Its 3 and 1/2 months (183 PAs) into his 19 year old season. As Greene struck out at a 42% rate in Lakewood, also.
         Either way, Greene isn’t striking out at a Hewitt like rate, as described above. Greene is on his own level at this point.

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         1. Actually he’s not. They K’ed at almost an identical rate during comparative age years, Hewitt has just failed to get any better over the ensuing 5 years. Let’s hope this season is just a blip on the radar for T. Greene and he’s not Anthony Hewitt wasting away in A ball during his 5th year of pro ball.

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      2. @Rick — Agreed. Let’s give him some time to learn and develop. I am no scout, in fact, I a have never seen him. He isn’t the first one to strike out a ton early in his career and I wonder if he is being overly aggressive or is pressing considering his walk rate in Williamsport (4 BB’s in at least 93 PAs) has dropped substantially from where it was in Lakewood earlier this year (13 BB’s in at least 88 PAs) and in the GCL last year (11 BB’s in at least 69 PAs) — which signals that he may be more impatient right now. He is only 19 and has awhile to work things out and find his groove.

         There is a tendency with some that comment here to write off guys because they are not completely dominating (e.g. D. Brown). We all want to see these guys advance and star with the Phils. Some will figure it out and others will flame out. Nevertheless, it is way too premature to come to conclusions or be overly critical when these guys are so young and early into their professional careers. If someone is making the same mistakes over a 5-6 year period, it may be fair, but not so early.

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   2. Hewitt, age 19 in the GCL: 55 Ks in 129 PA for a 42.3% K rate.
      Greene, age 19 across Lakewood and Williamsport: 76 Ks in 183 PA for a 41.5% K rate.

      Basically, Hewitt hasn’t K’d at Tyler Greene’s rate since he was Tyler Greene’s age.

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      1. And at least Greene can say he is doing it at a higher level… for whatever that’s worth.

         Hewitt-esque it stays (in my opinion).

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         1. Right- I won’t pretend Greene’s season is anything but disappointing, but it’s not insulting to Hewitt to compare the two.

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   3. I think Hewitt takes more criticism because he was a first rounder. People will be more forgiving on an 11th rounder because those guys rarely make it anyway.

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      1. If he was an 11th rounder he would have probably already been released. There was enough potential as a first rounder so they are still banking on that

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         1. I doubt he would’ve been released. They didn’t release Derrick Mitchell when he struggled with Ks and walks, as a young player. Hewitt’s 1st round status no doubt helped him get promoted after the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
            At this point, don’t believe that his status as a 1st round pick means anything to the team, and they aren’t banking on anything, he is just another minor leaguer now.

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            1. He absolutely would’ve been released if he was anything but a first rounder with a $1million bonus. He’ll be someplace else next year.

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               1. I doubt it. There is no reason to release somebody who is still under team control and is showing ‘some’ signs of improvement. The board hates him because he was a first round pick that “everybody knew” would fail. That doesn’t mean the front office feels the same way.

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               2. …and to respond to myself, one need look no further than D’arby Myers to see proof of this.

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4. I never heard Mike Schmidt was a switch hitter in high school? learning to switch hit at any professional level is hard. And imo it takes away from his time to make the majors, learning to do something he never had to do before, Its hard enough to learn to hit the better pitching hitting from your natural positon.But I understand they think with his speed , if he can do it, can make him better hitter and the more this kid gets on base with his speed,the more changes for him to steal and score runs. which it seems will be his job,if he makes the majors. no matter if its at shortstop or center field.

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