Why was Cedric Mullins ever a switch hitter?

[accinfo]

9 hours ago, Frobby said:

Nobody said he never had an above average season.  But overall, what I see is a .755 career OPS in the minors, not above .800 at any level if you look at all the games he played there.   That compares with Hays .836, Mancini .829, Sisco .816,, Mountcastle .799, Stewart .790.   I stick by my statement that Mullins was a solid minor league hitter, by no means outstanding, regardless of what he did in 49 games one season.   

No doubt.  What was his numbers just as a left handed hitter in the minors?  I would look it up if I knew how.  He looks like a real good left handed hitter.  

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, accinfo said:

No doubt.  What was his numbers just as a left handed hitter in the minors?  I would look it up if I knew how.  He looks like a real good left handed hitter.  

Before this season, I calculated his MiL OBP as a LHB at .329.   Don’t know about BA/SLG.  Much better than as a RHB though.   

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

I know Harold Reynolds isn't the most popular guy here, but this was good analysis on Mullins by him.

 

[connja]

OK is this guy for real?  Starting to look like it.  He's playing at all-star level right now.  Kind of amazing.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, connja said:

OK is this guy for real?  Starting to look like it.  He's playing at all-star level right now.  Kind of amazing.

Well, 1.7 rWAR in 29 games is definitely all star level.   I’m sure he will cool off (to some extent, he already has), but he’s showing he can play.  I continue to be amazed by his left-on-left performance.

[GuidoSarducci]

He's been our MVP so far, well maybe tied with Means.  

[Tony-OH]

On 5/1/2021 at 12:31 AM, accinfo said:

No doubt.  What was his numbers just as a left handed hitter in the minors?  I would look it up if I knew how.  He looks like a real good left handed hitter.  

He was a much better hitter as a left-handed hitter than as a right-handed hitter and if you look at my scouting reports for him over time, you can see how myself and many other scouts and player development personnel noted the difference in swings. 

Saying that, I can't think of a single hitter who gave up switch hitting at the major league level and became good at hitting the same hand pitching. So this is really a new situation that could encourage other struggling switch hitters in the minors to try this as well.

[DrungoHazewood]

26 minutes ago, connja said:

OK is this guy for real?  Starting to look like it.  He's playing at all-star level right now.  Kind of amazing.

I think we can be 99% sure he's not a .333 hitter going forward.  But he doesn't have to be to be valuable.  His rest-of-season projections are still in the .250/.305/.400 neighborhood, which may be a little pessimistic since they don't include him ditching switch hitting (I presume).  But I suppose it's not entirely unreasonable to think he could be somewhat better than a .705 OPS hitter.

[Moose Milligan]

I think you can throw the projections out the window.  Everyone likes to speculate as to what he really is but no one can be too sure.  

The "safe bet" is something like Drungo outlined above, but let's be honest...that's boring.  And there's nothing to romanticize there.  

The exciting prediction is that what we're seeing right now is legit and he's something like Tony Gwynn/Rod Carew/Ichiro.  That's not likely.  

The truth lays somewhere in the middle, most likely.  To which side it leans is to be determined.  But @Tony-OH is correct; he was a much better hitter from the left side to begin with and nobody can remember someone giving up switch hitting at the ML level, much less having the success that Mullins is having.  We're somewhat in unchartered territory here.

Either way, I'm having a blast watching him. 

[foxfield]

The situation with Cedric is unique.  It's also pretty exciting.  There is really no downside for the Orioles.  At worst he is a much more versatile OF than he was before and at best he is an all star.

We deserve some good news, but if we don't get too caught up we should understand that his floor has risen pretty significantly and so has his ceiling.