Why was Cedric Mullins ever a switch hitter?

[Beysbol]

6 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Also, he's walked as many times as he did in the short season last year in 60 less plate appearances.  

Wow! That's amazing! He's just so great to watch and I love Palmer's reaction when he belted that ball to dead center. I'm gonna watch that game again. I think this is the best Orioles game all season so far.

 

[glenn__davis]

He had a pretty good AB against Chapman in NY during the 2nd series of the season.  I do think he ultimately struck out on a slider but he hung in there and fouled off some nasty fastballs against one of the best in the game, and looked extremely comfortable doing so.  I thought at the time that for a guy who hadn't seen left-on-left for so long that that was very impressive.

[Sports Guy]

He looks great.  Impressive to see him slump and then bounce back the way he has.

 

[foxfield]

This is the type of thing we get hopefully will get more of in the future.  This is a great development.  Will it hold?  I dont know.  If it does and that creates pressure on the other young outfielders.  Well great.  Very happy for him and the O's!  Keep it up. 

[webbrick2010]

One of the best stories in MLB so far for 2021. Kudos to whomever helped him make the decision to abandon switch hitting. If that was a present O's coach he/she should get a bonus.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

He's dazzling right now.  Starting to wonder how much of this is for real vs. how much of it is a hot streak to start the season.  

Mostly a hot streak IMO.   But, I think he’s clearly established that he can hit LHP better from the LH side than he could from the RH side.   That right there may be enough to upgrade him from a fourth OF type to a viable starting CF.

By the way, in 33 AB, Mullins already had more hits against LHP as a LHB (15) than he did in his career as a switch hitter (14 for 95).  

Ride the wave!
 

[Sports Guy]

Yea, the 444 BABiP isn’t sustainable.  He definitely will come back to earth.  
 

What he has done is make you ask the question if he is now a long term asset.  

[Moose Milligan]

39 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, the 444 BABiP isn’t sustainable.  He definitely will come back to earth.  
 

What he has done is make you ask the question if he is now a long term asset.  

SG!!!  What do you think we could get for him in a trade?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, Moose Milligan said:

SG!!!  What do you think we could get for him in a trade?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Nothing right now..but 3 months from now? Maybe something worthwhile although I would say the value still isn’t likely to be that high, as teams will want to see more of him.

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Nothing right now..but 3 months from now? Maybe something worthwhile although I would say the value still isn’t likely to be that high, as teams will want to see more of him.

What if he turns into a 4 win player though?  Is he a guy you keep for the future team we're building here?  

I'm aware anyone can be traded for if the price is right but if this really marks a turnaround for the guy, you have to wonder if he's a good piece worth keeping.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

What if he turns into a 4 win player though?  Is he a guy you keep for the future team we're building here?  

I'm aware anyone can be traded for if the price is right but if this really marks a turnaround for the guy, you have to wonder if he's a good piece worth keeping.

That’s a really tough question to answer. 
 

I wrote about Mullins for ESR a few weeks ago.  My thought then (and still now) is that he is a reserve OFer but the one thing to remember about Mullins is that he performed well as a professional until 2019.

Now, I was skeptical of him prior to 2019 because I questioned certain aspects of his game and how that would translate in the majors but still, he was a success in the minors nonetheless.

Why this question is tough to answer is that we have so many other pieces.  People say depth is a good thing.  That is sort of true but depth can be a bad thing when you have a lot of it but don’t really know what you have yet.  Do you trade a guy?  Is that player playing over his head or turned a corner?  Are they part of the future and if not, is someone else?  What if that someone else has talent but can’t stay healthy, what do you do?

 

It is a lot of questions to ask.  Plus, even If Mullins is good this whole year that doesn’t mean he is good next year.  To me, you have to give him 2 seasons of being good for me to be sold on you, especially if you have been really bad prior to that.  
 

For now, I feel his value won’t be high enough to trade him at the deadline but it’s also possible that you regret not taking a deal for him then because he falls off a cliff later. 

[Frobby]

10 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

What if he turns into a 4 win player though?  Is he a guy you keep for the future team we're building here?  

I'm aware anyone can be traded for if the price is right but if this really marks a turnaround for the guy, you have to wonder if he's a good piece worth keeping.

Personally I think we should not be trading assets who will have more than 3 years of major league service remaining, unless we are trading from surplus or for similar players at positions where we are weaker.  We should be looking to put a .500+ team on the field next year.  

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Mostly a hot streak IMO.   But, I think he’s clearly established that he can hit LHP better from the LH side than he could from the RH side.   That right there may be enough to upgrade him from a fourth OF type to a viable starting CF.

By the way, in 33 AB, Mullins already had more hits against LHP as a LHB (15) than he did in his career as a switch hitter (14 for 95).  

Ride the wave!
 

While it's a small sample size, I think this point is worth highlighting. If you recall, my biggest issue with Mullins once he established himself as a prospect after his Delmarva season was that his right-handed swing just wasn't good. He was never going to be able to be more than a platoon guy while batting right-handed and trying to fix his right-handed swing I believe affected his left-handed swing.

It's rare for a player to give up switch hitting and find success batting only one way, and then finding success facing pitching of the same side. Honestly, I don't know I  know of a player who has done this at the major league level and found success like Mullins has so far. 

I know earlier you blamed the high school coach which I hope was tongue and cheek since any good high school coach would encourage someone who showed success switch hitting to continue to switch hit. The problem was once he hit the minor leagues that the Orioles probably should have addressed this much earlier on. By Bowie it was pretty clear his swing was just not as fluid and he was not having the same kind of EV from the right side that he got from the left side. Saying that, I can't blame the Orioles player development for not changing him earlier for two reasons, one Mullins did not want to stop trying to switch hit, and two, there is no real precedent that I can remember of a player going one handed then becoming proficient hitting the same sided hand pitching.

Mullins could actually be the precedent that other teams will use with switch hitters who struggle significantly from one side of the plate (almost always right handed) especially in the minor league system where something like this should be identified and corrected as soon as possible.

Keeping two different swings going at the same time is extremely hard to do which is why good every day switch hitters are fairly rare.

 

Saying all that, if Mullins is truly able to effectively hit left-handed pitching long term, his upside goes from 4th outfielder to every day starter. I don't expect Mullins to keep hitting .350, but with his stellar defense in center, if he's able to keep his OBP around .335 to .360 he becomes a pretty good asset in the lineup as well.

[DrungoHazewood]

17 hours ago, Frobby said:

Honestly, putting aside the results (15 for 33 vs. LHP this year), Cedric seems very, very comfortable facing lefties.   Hangs in there, sees the ball extremely well.   So what genius high school coach decided he should switch hit?

I feel like Cedric could’ve had a much better career to this point if he’d just batted lefty all the time in the first place.

I remember before the season wildcard projected that Mullins would equal his career BA vs. RHP against the lefties if he gave up switch hitting, and I said not likely.    Well, I am eating crow, happily. 

Just wanted to mention that I've been advocating he give up switch hitting for like three years.   Of course he's not going to hit lefties like Ty Cobb, it's just a hot streak.  But it's a good thing he's doing well, and ditched an obvious weakness.

[Sanfran327]

My guess is that he wanted to and was able to do it with enough proficiency that coaches never discouraged it. Also guessing that it was a personal decision to give it up, but I'm sure someone here will remind me whether or not the organization nudged him in that direction or not.