A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast show. In the show, a researcher mentioned a player who has a great season in 2024. That player used to be an All-Star and has blasted 200+ home runs so far in his career. The host quickly responded with a key thing.
That player just killed the righties. That really made me think about a question. Over the last several seasons, which players did hit well against the righties? To understand a little bit more, I decided to check on the statcast website.
Luis Arraez is a great contact hitter in the majors. Over the last 4 seasons, there were 3 times that he finished a season with a batting average over .300. Against right-handed pitchers, he did hit well with a batting average over .300.
Meanwhile, from 2020 to 2023, Freddie Freeman, who’s probably the most consistent hitter in the majors, finished each season with a batting average of .300 or higher. In particular, he won the 2020 NL MVP and in that season, he slashed .341/.462/.640 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI over 60 games. Without doubt, Freeman can hit righties. Over the last 4 seasons, his batting average against RHPs was over .330.
Moreover, Michael Brantley already retired after playing 15 seasons in the majors. He played for the Astros from 2019 to 2023. Over the last 4 seasons, there were 2 times that he finished a season with a batting average over .300. Against right-handed pitchers, he had a batting average over .330.
Furthermore, over the last 4 seasons, Bryce Harper and Ronald Acuna Jr. each owned a batting average over .300 against righties. Michael Harris II made his MLB debut in 2022. He did hit well against righties with a batting average over .300 in the last 2 seasons.
In addition, let’s take a look at those hitters who blasted a lot of home runs against right-handed pitchers over the last 4 seasons. Aaron Judge is a home run hitter, without doubt. Judge blasted 147 home runs over the last 4 seasons and 107 of those home runs were hit against righties. At the same time, Kyle Schwarber smashed 100+ home runs against righties as well. He crushed 136 home runs from 2020 to 2023. And, from 2020 to 2023, 4 other players each belted 90+ home runs against right-handed pitchers.
Looking at the stats over the last 4 seasons, among the 6 hitters who had a batting average over .300 against right-handed pitchers, 5 of them are lefty batters. That might somehow tell us that left-handed batters have an advantage against right-handed pitchers. Nonetheless, when we look at the number of home runs, things are a bit different. 6 batters each blasted more than 90 home runs against the righties from 2020 to 2023, 3 right-handed batters are on the leaderboard. So far this season, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani each blasted 36 home runs against righties. It will be very interesting to see if they will finish the 2024 season with 40+ home runs against right-handed pitchers.
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