Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Jose Valentin's Lefty-Only Gambit
Over the course of the regular season, I tracked how Jose Valentin's change from a switch-hitter to a lefty-only hitter was working. Well, I never did put in the final results. But Jose is gone, not forgotten. So, without further adieu, here are Jose's season and pre-2004 career stats as a lefty vs. lefty pitchers and righty vs. lefty pitchers, respectively:
2004 (L v. L): .191 AVG / .262 OBP / .404 SLG (136 AB)
pre-2004 (R v. L): .207 AVG / .283 OBP / .288 SLG (909 AB)
So the bottom line is that Jose was a marginally more useful hitter as a full-time lefty hitter. One would imagine that if he had hit lefty exclusively his whole career, he would have gotten used to it a little better (and he may improve more next year) and put up considerably better stats over his career. Of course, that's the Dodgers' problem now.
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