Too many LH hitters?

[Fronzizzle]

Hello all,

I just finished simulating the 2035 season, so basically playing with all generated players at this point. About 5-6 years in, I noticed that almost all top players in the draft and Int. FA were left handed hitters. As the seasons have progressed, the problem has gotten more pronounced.

I find it nearly impossible now to build a balanced team, the good RH hitters are few & far in between. My typical setup is to have 13 position players, if I can find 2-3 RH that are worthwhile as platoon guys I think I'm doing pretty well.

At the end of the season, I sorted by various stats (qualified batters only), below is the breakdown. For ease, I looked at the top 40:

Qualified hitter - 158 total: 13 switch, 68 RH, 77 LH (48.7%)

Avg: 3 switch, 14 RH, 23 LH (57.5%)

HR: 2 switch, 14 RH, 24 LH (60.0%)

OBP: 1 switch, 14 RH, 25 LH (62.5%)

OPS: 3 switch, 14 RH, 23 LH (57.5%

I didn't do WAR because of the defensive component, I wanted to look just at offensive numbers.

I wanted to put how these compare to real MLB, but it's impossible to find a site that lists stats and batter hand like OOTP does and I don't want to go through each player individually to figure out which way they bat.

I didn't post the numbers, if you reverse the search and start at the bottom (i.e. the 20 worst avg. hitters out of the qualifiers), I am getting around 1 switch, 11 RH and 8 LH.

So, my first question is: doesn't 50% LH seem high compared to real MLB? I feel like many teams struggle to find LH hitters.

Second, it's not as skewed as I would have guessed but it does appear that LH are disproportionately good in my league. Is anyone else experiencing this, and is there a setting or something to maybe adjust going forward?

[SirMichaelJordan]

Funny because I just started noticing the opposite with the lack of LH hitters and pitchers.

[Sweed]

My league is an on-going league imported from version to version since v4 (2002) so my mix of L and R batters may not be comparable to an all v19 league.

Having said that and without doing a ton or research to find real life numbers or even looking into my OOTP league my first thoughts are...

If you only look at qualified batters I think the numbers will lean towards a lot of LHB because of the pure number of RHP. More RHP leads to more LH plate appearances. IE RHB in a platoon are not likely to get enough PAs to qualify but a LHB still may.

Well, as I stared to type this curiosity got the better of me and I made a quick trip to Baseballreference. In their table batter handedness in noted with a * for LH and a # for switch hitter. A quick look at qualifiers for the 2017 season based on 503 PA shows this..

65 total qualifiers in NL

22\65 L .338
6 switch .092
37 rhb .569

79 total in AL

25/79 lhb 32%
12/79 S 15%
42 rhb 53%

MLB total 2017
144
47 l .326
18 s .125
79 r .548

Your league
158
77 l .487
13 s .082
68 r .430


I'm not a statistician but I would think a one season comparison is too small to make any hard judgement? You are definitely LH heavy based only on this but, I suppose it could be a lot of things.

A bigger sample size of real life and OOTP would even out.

You use sabre lineups option in OOTP leading to more platoons?

Your league is short on left handed pitching?

Could just be your league going through an anomaly that evens out over time?

What happens if you look at guys that just missed qualifying? IE 350+ or 400+ PA instead of 503?

Just throwing out some ideas

[SirMichaelJordan]

Looking deeper without indepth research...

At a glance there does seem to be a tab bit too much LH hitters. There are also few LH Pitchers.