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This team can't hit LHP


macsandz

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QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 24, 2011 -> 02:48 PM)
Adam Dunn's lack of a single hit against a left-hander is a funny statistic.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6763/s...g4UPla9pdeFCLcF

 

0-30, baby!

HA! I found this article (linked to me by a buddy) right after I posted.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_leagu...?urn=mlb-wp7384

 

Hilariously awful stat: Adam Dunn is 0 for 30 against lefties

By David Brown

 

Finally, a stat that proves a major league team really could pull a fan out of the stands and he (or she) would be guaranteed to do no worse than the millionaire who's usually in the batter's box.

 

Chicago White Sox slugger Adam Dunn(notes) has no hits against left-handed pitching in 30 at-bats this season — or 34 plate appearances if you want to make his performance sound a tad worse.

 

Checking MLB's un-leader board, nobody with at least 25 plate appearances has been worse than Dunn against lefty pitching. Everyone else in the group has at least one hit against a southpaw, except for Jorge Posada(notes) of the Yankees. He's 0 for 25, with no hits in 31 plate appearances. It is still, however, better than Adam.

 

Also, Hip Hip Jorge is old and infirm. Dunn is eight years younger and much more robust, or so the White Sox assumed when they signed him to a $56 million, four-year deal in the offseason and stuck him in the middle of their batting order.

 

As Sahadev Sharma notes at ESPN Chicago, manager Ozzie Guillen says he has no plans to sit the left-handed Dunn against lefties, at least as a recurring move:

 

"If I'm going to sit him, it'll be to have a [regular] day off," Guillen said. "This guy is a pure, good hitter and is going through a tough time right now."

For his part, Dunn recently said he feels good when facing lefties. Guillen found that a little funny and said he definitely doesn't want to see what happens when Dunn's feeling bad against a lefty.

 

Gotta love Ozzie with the gallows humor. And though Guillen makes some head-scratching tactical decisions, he's absolutely right to leave Dunn where he is.

 

Two reasons: One, Dunn probably will hit as Guillen expects. His track record is long enough. Two, the White Sox don't have better alternatives, though they could bring up Dayan Viciedo(notes) from the minors, I suppose. (He's not better than Dunn.) And if Dunn doesn't hit better than .200, the White Sox are doomed to finish no better than fourth.

 

While Dunn tends to be weaker against lefties for his career, he's inconsistent from season to season. He hit .199/.304/.416 against lefties in 2010, but he's also had seasons where his batting average was better against lefties than righties. The 2009 season, for example. Go figure.

 

It's encouraging that Dunn hasn't been totally lost hitting against right-handers (.241/.360/.438), though he does share the league's overall lead in strikeouts with Detroit's Austin Jackson(notes). But he was striking out a lot when he was producing runs, so that's not it.

 

Out of curiosity, I also checked to see who with at least 25 plate appearances against righties has no hits: Nobody, though Cleveland's Lou Marson(notes) is 1 for 25. Another guy not expected to hit like Adam Dunn — at least not when Dunn is actually producing.

 

 

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QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 24, 2011 -> 09:36 PM)
Well actually, he is lefty/righty splits are not too different. He hits for better average against RHP, but some reason has a MUCH better batting eye against LHP.

 

Based on what I saw from him in the majors last year, he should be able to be a monster against LHP. Lillibridge also needs to play every game against LHP.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 24, 2011 -> 06:01 PM)
It also would have been nice to have someone like Andruw Jones to use occasionally against LHP as well.

 

Not that we would be in 1st place with him.

He'd be taking at bats away from Lillibridge. We might well have lost more games with Jones.

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I'm going to make an educated guess that the author of that ESPN/Chicago article has never once in his life seen Dayan Viciedo swing a baseball bat.

 

Is Viciedo going to have the same impact as Dunn on the back of his baseball card? Obviously doubtful, but just to discount the possible contributions of a minor leaguer that you've probably never seen...well, it just goes to show you that anyone can have an opinion these days.

 

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 24, 2011 -> 03:46 PM)
I'm going to make an educated guess that the author of that ESPN/Chicago article has never once in his life seen Dayan Viciedo swing a baseball bat.

 

Is Viciedo going to have the same impact as Dunn on the back of his baseball card? Obviously doubtful, but just to discount the possible contributions of a minor leaguer that you've probably never seen...well, it just goes to show you that anyone can have an opinion these days.

Based on what I saw of Dayan last year I can absolutely 100% guarantee that he would have put the ball in play more against lefties than Dunn and 99.75% sure he would have better offensive numbers in just about any category you choose.

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Huh. It's too bad Dunn made it into the lineup today.

 

edit: That is to say, .230/.348/.456/.804 is his career line v. lefties. You can't possibly want our gazillion dollar hitter to have a platoon position because of a 34 PA sample size.

Edited by JorgeFabregas
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QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 25, 2011 -> 08:26 PM)
This has been a problem since June 2006 ................fire Walker new life is needed on this team.

 

Th9is has been a problem with the Sox since the early 80's. I remember the Sox just flailing away against soft tossing lefties like Scott McGregor and Mike Flanagan. You'll see from my previous posts that I often bring up Sox futility against lefties, especially soft tossers.

 

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QUOTE (ptatc @ May 26, 2011 -> 09:33 PM)
Th9is has been a problem with the Sox since the early 80's. I remember the Sox just flailing away against soft tossing lefties like Scott McGregor and Mike Flanagan. You'll see from my previous posts that I often bring up Sox futility against lefties, especially soft tossers.

 

And Greg Walker was the team then... Coincidence? I think not. The Sox are so awful they should have fired Walker 30 years ago!

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