I mentioned yesterday that John Halama is the front-runner to be the
Athletics’ #5 starter. If he does win the job, the A’s would have four
left-handers in the rotation, with Halama backing up Mark Mulder,
Barry Zito and Ted Lilly. Before the A’s/Rockies game on
Tuesday, I asked an A’s executive if that imbalance concerned the team, and he
said that it didn’t, that quality pitching is quality pitching.
While it goes against our religion here at Baseball Prospectus to
question anything the A’s do, I have to admit I was curious. Is there any
disadvantage to getting a disproportionate number of starts from one side or
the other?
One of the best things about being back at BP–right up there with the Friday
sing-a-longs and Zumsteg’s lemon bars–is getting to work with people who have
a strong handle on data. I asked Michael Wolverton if he could find the teams
who’d gotten the greatest percentage of starts from each side of the mound. He
made me promise him my lemon bars this week, but I think it was worth it. Here
are the 20 teams who got the highest percentage of starts from left-handers.
Team Year GS-L GS Pct. LgPct. ERA LgERA PctLgERA NYA 1981 85 107 .794 .357 2.90 3.66 0.79 NYA 1983 127 162 .784 .382 3.86 4.06 0.95 CHA 1975 124 161 .770 .328 3.93 3.78 1.04 CHA 1979 116 160 .725 .320 4.10 4.21 0.97 BAL 1974 116 162 .716 .362 3.27 3.62 0.90 KCA 1982 113 162 .698 .361 4.08 4.07 1.00 LAN 1965 112 162 .691 .328 2.81 3.54 0.79 BOS 1951 106 154 .688 .337 4.14 4.12 1.00 CHA 1980 111 162 .685 .364 3.92 4.03 0.97 NYA 1980 110 162 .679 .364 3.58 4.03 0.89 BAL 1977 109 161 .677 .303 3.74 4.06 0.92 ATL 1991 109 162 .673 .362 3.49 3.68 0.95 KCA 1984 109 162 .673 .340 3.92 3.99 0.98 NYA 1982 109 162 .673 .361 3.99 4.07 0.98 NYA 1994 75 113 .664 .304 4.34 4.80 0.90 CAL 1991 107 162 .660 .278 3.69 4.09 0.90 PIT 1994 75 114 .658 .276 4.64 4.22 1.10 PHI 1987 106 162 .654 .333 4.18 4.08 1.02 CAL 1994 75 115 .652 .304 5.42 4.80 1.13 SLN 1949 101 157 .643 .407 3.44 4.04 0.85 Team Year Pitchers NYA 1981 May, Guidry, John, Righetti NYA 1983 Rawley, Guidry, Righetti, Shirley, Fontenot CHA 1975 Wood, Kaat, Osteen CHA 1979 Kravec, Wortham, Baumgarten, Trout BAL 1974 Grimsley, Cuellar, McNally KCA 1982 Gura, Blue, Splittorff LAN 1965 Koufax, Osteen, Podres BOS 1951 Parnell, Stobbs, McDermott CHA 1980 Burns, Trout, Baumgarten, Kravec NYA 1980 John, Guidry, Underwood, May BAL 1977 May, Grimsley, Flanagan ATL 1991 Leibrandt, Avery, Glavine KCA 1984 Black, Gura, Leibrandt NYA 1982 Guidry, Righetti, John NYA 1994 Key, Abbott, Mulholland CAL 1991 Abbott, Finley, Langston PIT 1994 Neagle, Z. Smith, Cooke PHI 1987 Rawley, Carman, Ruffin CAL 1994 Finley, B. Anderson, Langston, Magrane SLN 1949 Breechen, Pollet, Brazle, Lanier
Michael concludes: “In general, the lefty-heavy staffs tend to be good
staffs. Fourteen of the top 20 lefty staffs were better than average. The list is
heavily weighted toward Yankee staffs, with a pitchers’ park that favored
lefties.”
There a few shortened seasons on here. I would normally drop those, but I’ve
left them in for completeness. The top two teams are, not surprisingly, Yankee
squads from the years when Death Valley still existed: 430 feet to left-center
field. Two other versions of that team, 1980 and 1982, are also on the
list. The 1983 team was the only one I found whose top five starters, by games
started, were all left-handed.
The two White Sox teams in third and fourth place are notable in that they
turned the trick with completely different sets of pitchers (save an odd start
by Ken Kravec in 1975). There are other clumps in here,
including another White Sox team from that era, two Chuck Finley/Mark Langston
Angels squads, and a couple of early-80s Royals rotations.
If history is any guide, the A’s should have no qualms about opening the
season with four left-handers in their rotation. There’s no indication that
teams who get the bulk of their starts from lefties operate at a disadvantage.
For completeness, let’s look at the flip side. Thirty teams have gone through
a season getting all their starts from right-handed pitchers:
Team Year GS Pct. LgPct. ERA LgERA PctLgERA LAN 1993 162 1.000 .696 3.50 4.04 0.87 LAN 1994 114 1.000 .724 4.23 4.22 1.00 TOR 1983 162 1.000 .618 4.12 4.06 1.01 LAN 1995 144 1.000 .719 3.66 4.18 0.88 NYN 1996 162 1.000 .769 4.22 4.22 1.00 LAN 1996 162 1.000 .769 3.48 4.22 0.82 TOR 1998 163 1.000 .732 4.29 4.65 0.92 MIL 2001 162 1.000 .219 4.64 4.36 1.07 NYA 1922 154 1.000 .206 3.39 4.03 0.84 BOS 1930 154 1.000 .241 4.68 4.64 1.01 BSN 1944 155 1.000 .221 3.67 3.61 1.02 BRO 1904 154 1.000 .133 2.70 2.73 0.99 SLN 1902 140 1.000 .157 3.47 2.78 1.25 CHN 2001 162 1.000 .219 4.03 4.36 0.93 CHN 1996 162 1.000 .231 4.36 4.22 1.03 BRO 1903 139 1.000 .146 3.44 3.26 1.06 CHN 1995 144 1.000 .281 4.13 4.18 0.99 CHN 1933 154 1.000 .213 2.93 3.33 0.88 CLE 1932 153 1.000 .269 4.12 4.48 0.92 CHN 1932 154 1.000 .249 3.44 3.88 0.89 BAL 2002 162 1.000 .254 4.46 4.46 1.00 TBA 2000 161 1.000 .250 4.86 4.91 0.99 DET 1984 162 1.000 .340 3.49 3.99 0.87 OAK 1992 162 1.000 .265 3.73 3.94 0.95 HOU 2000 162 1.000 .237 5.41 4.63 1.17 ATL 1974 163 1.000 .296 3.05 3.62 0.84 CHN 1994 113 1.000 .276 4.47 4.22 1.06
I don’t think we can draw any conclusions from this. Fifteen of these teams
had ERAs below the league average, but that’s skewed by the Dodger Stadium
teams at the top of the list.
Oh, one more thing: USC 81, Cal 77. Ya gotta believe.
Thank you for reading
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