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Thursday, June 10, 2010
Switch-hitters batting same-handed against changeup pitchers
Rays theory:
Ever since Dallas Braden and his nasty change threw a perfect game against the Rays, Maddon has stacked his lineups with players who bat with the same hand as the starting pitcher in order to neutralize that pitch. The change-up is a pitch that is typically used to neutralize opposite-handed hitters, and so Maddon is attempting to take away this advantage from pitchers with great change-ups by reducing the number of opposite-handed hitters in the lineup. ... However, the Rays sent up switch-hitters Ben Zobrist and Dioner Navarro to bat right handed against Marcum, and even more telling was that they not only used right-handed catcher Kelly Shoppach as the DH, but they hit him clean-up.
So, it’s a battle of
a. the same-handed hitters neutralizing the changeup as a weapon
vs.
b. the same-handed hitters being taken advantage by all the other pitches as a weapon
It would seem to me that it would have to be one mother of a changeup for a hitter to do that, but, I haven’t worked it out.
Fascinating thought though, and exactly the kind of thing that can get the field manager and front office working on a solution.
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