Power and Left Handed Pitching

[stringer bell]

I have been disappointed in the Twins home run output.  They are again near the bottom of the league in long balls despite having a lot of hit-first players.  They have three guys who have combined to hit a majority of their homers--Plouffe, Hunter and Dozier.  Those three have combined for 20 of the team's 32 circuit clouts.  All three hit right handed and all three hit significantly better against left handed pitching. 

 

The Twins have faced a surprising amount of left handed pitching.  Sunday's game will be the 19th where the Twins opponent started a lefty.  It was pointed out that Chicago has faced only six left handed starters all year.  The Twins' outstanding (and surprising) success against lefties is a big part of their surprising overall record. 

[Tibs]

When you have Shane Robinson, Kurt Suzuki, Eduardo Escobar, Danny Santana, and Eduardo Núñez in the same lineup, you aren't going to hit a lot of homeruns.

[spinowner]

While the general rule is that more HR's is better than fewer HR's the name of the game is scoring runs by whatever means when it's most important to score them. If you had Wade Boggs at his peak batting in every spot in the lineup you wouldn't have many dingers but you'd win a lot of games.

[JB_Iowa]

They've played in almost all cool weather and they've had a lot of long flies so maybe some of them will start going out when it warms up.

 

Plus, Vargas will be back up at some point and possibly Pinto so there is more power on the way.

 

So far this team seems to feed off each other ... seems like a lot of them are hitting -- or no one is.

 

 

[Craig Arko]

This is where Arcia and Vargas will need to step in and fill the gap vs. right handlers.

[Hrbowski]

Apparently one of the players said they need "A big bopper," and now MLBTR is speculating that they could be in on Ryan Howard.

[stringer bell]

On the lefty pitching front, the AL Central has a lot of left handers, so I guess that 's part of the reason why the Twins have faced so many.  It is ironic that the other team that has faced the most lefties is Cleveland because they have had a real lack of success vs. southpaws.  The Twins are what? 13-5 when a lefty starts for the other guys, which means they are below .500 when a righty starts for the opponent. 

[twinsnorth49]

While the general rule is that more HR's is better than fewer HR's the name of the game is scoring runs by whatever means when it's most important to score them. If you had Wade Boggs at his peak batting in every spot in the lineup you wouldn't have many dingers but you'd win a lot of games.

Nobody ever told that to Earl Weaver.

[twinsnorth49]

By July I expect Arcia, Vargas and Pinto to change that considerably.

[spinowner]

 

By July I expect Arcia, Vargas and Pinto to change that considerably.

By July 2016 Sano as well.

[nicksaviking]

While the general rule is that more HR's is better than fewer HR's the name of the game is scoring runs by whatever means when it's most important to score them. If you had Wade Boggs at his peak batting in every spot in the lineup you wouldn't have many dingers but you'd win a lot of games.

That sounds like the same arguement that it's fine to not have strikeout pitchers, you just need five Mark Buerhles.

 

Finding a .950 OPS hitter with little power is as rare as finding an ace who can't get strikeouts. Can it be done? Sure hypothetically, but why take the near impossible route?

[RedBull34]

 

Finding a .950 OPS hitter with little power is as rare as finding an ace who can't get strikeouts. Can it be done? Sure hypothetically, but why take the near impossible route?

Finding a .950 OPS hitter is rare.  Tight now there are 11 players with a .950+ OPS.

 

Dee Gordon is (.865) the best example and he doesn't walk either!