Righty-Lefty

[Orange]

Okay, so I was perusing the 40-man roster and noticed something odd. We've got three hitters who throw righty and bat lefty. That's not the odd part, because there is a small edge you can gain by being a natural righty and learning to hit lefty. (Incidentally, it's Odor, Stewart, and Vavra.) The odd thing is that we've also got three left-handed pitchers who bat righty - Perez, Scott, and Smith. Why? Are you telling me they are natural righties and learned to pitch lefty? Unlikely. Maybe when they were in little league they were told that bats were like golf clubs and they only had the right-handed ones. Weird, right?

[SteveA]

6 minutes ago, Orange said:

Okay, so I was perusing the 40-man roster and noticed something odd. We've got three hitters who throw righty and bat lefty. That's not the odd part, because there is a small edge you can gain by being a natural righty and learning to hit lefty. (Incidentally, it's Odor, Stewart, and Vavra.) The odd thing is that we've also got three left-handed pitchers who bat righty - Perez, Scott, and Smith. Why? Are you telling me they are natural righties and learned to pitch lefty? Unlikely. Maybe when they were in little league they were told that bats were like golf clubs and they only had the right-handed ones. Weird, right?

There have been quite a few really good major leaguers who bat right and throw left.   Rickey Henderson is the one that comes to mind immediately.

These folks are probably natural lefthanders, but for whatever reason, when they pick up a bat, they are more comfortable swinging from the right side of the plate.