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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Next up on the Yankees’ winter shopping list is a righthanded-hitting outfielder, and the Angels’ Vernon Wells reportedly is a potential trade target.
The Yankees and the Angels discussed a possible deal for Wells at the baseball winter meetings in Nashville, according to a report Saturday on FoxSports.com.
The Yanks are also prowling the free-agent market in search of a righty bat to complement their all-lefty outfield of Curtis Granderson, Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro has agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract that will become official once he takes a physical and some contract language is completed.
The Yankees have interest in Scott Hairston, who hit 20 homers for the Mets last year. They might be a match with the Angels for a trade because the Halos just signed Josh Hamilton and now have a glut of outfielders, meaning the 34-year-old Wells could be available.
Thanks to JB.
Repoz
Posted: December 16, 2012 at 08:28 AM | 82 comment(s)
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1. Jeff Frances the Mute Posted: December 16, 2012 at 08:48 AM (#4325931)And since this article is basically just McCarron re-reporting Robo-thal, it's worth pointing out that he has the Phillies and Rays also potentially in on Wells. Basically, if your team has shown any interest in Scott Hairston or Cody Ross, the Angels would like to convince you to take Vernon instead. And who can blame them?
Que es mas macho? Fernando Lamas o Ricardo Montalbon?
Alfonso Soriano or Vernon Well or Corinthian leather?
To be clear, I knew absolutely nothing about him (not even that he existed) until a moment ago, when I thought "Surely they have a right handed outfielder who has hit acceptably in the high minors". And sure enough, Ronnier Mustelier.
This is great as long as you're not a Yankee fan.
Wrong. Wells' salary counts against whoever pays it. Otherwise, the Yankees could get under the cap just by cutting A-Rod and having someone else pick him up for the minimum.
Compared to last year, the replacement for Swisher is a healthy Gardner. Ichiro is replacing the combo of Jones and Ibanez. Both of those are likely to be upgrades on what the Yankees got from their OF'ers last year.
EDIT: Also, trading for Wells would be a terrible idea. Unless maybe the Angels will send the Yankees ~$60M of the $42M Vernon is owed.
Outs are the new market inefficiency. It's Moneyball.
And yet only 56% of MLB PA were taken by RHB in 2012.
Yeah, but being right-handed and batting right-handed don't necessarily go together. I'm right-handed, but I bat left.
EDIT: IOW, the Yanks already have two "righthanded" OFs who don't bat from the right side.
Alfonso Soriano 2006 ... 5.9 WAR
Other targets for the Yanks this offseason:
Travis Hafner ... 5.7 WAR (this actually makes some sense until everybody is healthy)
Gary Matthews Jr ... 5.0 WAR and a switch-hitter
Carlos Guillen or Bill Hall ... 5.6 WAR and more versatile than Troy Glaus ... or they could roll the dice on a kid like Joe Crede (4.4 WAR)
Wow, Joe Crede had a good year once.
Que es mas macho? Fernando Lamas o Ricardo Montalbon?
Montalban ... Lamas always seemed a bit fey ... not that there's anything wrong with that.
A guy like Scott Hairston is far more suitable for backing up an all left handed outfield
I'm not sure Hairston shouldn't start over Ichiro. I'm fairly certain Cody Ross should.
Congratulations! Knowing enough to ask that question proves you to be smarter than several real-life GM's!
And I'm left-handed and bat right!
It's actually only been in the past year that I've put any thought mechanically into my swing. A guy on our team who had played some Dominican academy ball (so presumably knows what he's talking about) was showing me how to swing by (apologies for the terrible description) bringing the knob of the bat to the ball, then punching through with the top (right) hand. This seems entirely un-natural to me. My right arm is more or less useless as an instrument of physical endeavour. My swing is almost entirely bottom (left) hand, with the right most just acting as a passenger along for the ride. In what might be a related development it is absoutely impossible for me to hit the ball to the right of second base.
I assume since the common bat/throw pairing is L/L or R/R that most swings are top hand dominant. Is bottom-hand swinging an actual thing? Or have I just been doing it wrong my entire life?
BL/TR is fairly common, but BR/TL is pretty rare. You, Rickey, Cleon Jones, and that kid I coached in Little League are the only ones I can think of OTTOMH.
As for your swing, forget all that knob-throwing BS and just turn your damned hips.
Cody Ross, and several pitchers.
As a fellow rarity I've kept an eye on it...there's actually quite a few pitchers who are L/R.
Good news on the hips! That's essentially my entire batting strategy. Playing baseball in a country where no one has ever played is really fun because it forces you to think about technique in order to explain to new guys how to hit. Pretty much my only contribution to the various cricketers or footballers who show up is "HIPS!"
I play guitar righty, bat lefty, play golf righty, throw lefty, kick righty...
Okay. That explains a lot.
Anyone else do things at all like that? I've never thought of myself as ambidextrous, but it seems odd to not be but still alternate things like that.
I'm right-handed and bat left, as stated above; I throw with my right hand and I think I kick with my right foot. My hockey swing and golf swing are, like my baseball swing, left-handed.
Not sure what you mean by "connection," but I think there is a pretty decent correlation between which hand you throw with and which side you bat from.
"Swinging toward your left" could just as easily be viewed as "swinging from your right." But I don't think it has anything to do with that.
Why do we call it "playing left field"? When you do it, you're standing to the right of the guy playing right field. But you're on the batter's left. And when you bat right-handed, you're on the pitcher's right.
Regardless, I was not much of a hockey shot so I doubt I'd have been any good with the lefty bat either.
I'm also a BR/TL. This is what happens when right-handed people teach you how to play baseball (or wiffle ball for me as a kid).
I work with a guy who can write with both hands at the same time.
I'm about as dominantly right-handed as one can get.
My only guess was that while your timing was off most of your swing repetition reflex is responding to the ball as it is closer to you, whereas when your timing is better it starts earlier on. Otherwise it was all BS and had more to do with the power of suggestion.
I'm the same for lefty. I can barely hold a pint with my right.
I would guess that the "batting righty" descrption comes from the fact that most people who bat right-handed use their right arm as the dominant one in their swing. I suspect people who are left-handed but bat righty are actually using a different swing that R/R. I don't know enough about swings to know for sure, but it just makes sense. In my swing my right arm is barely doing anything. I'd have to believe that a R/R batter is doing something quite different.
Same. Bat, throw, write, mouse, you name it -- I'm purely RH.
My dad, meanwhile, writes and throws RH but bats LH. It always seemed weird to me.
I throw right-handed, bat right-handed, bowl right-handed, use scissors right-handed, and use a mouse right-handed. In volleyball I serve and spike right-handed. In basketball I shoot right-handed.
Air hockey and ping pong I can do with equal proficiency with either hand.
I guessed Ludwick as well, and he is in fact one of them. I wouldn't have come up with the second if you gave me all day.
Or the kind that Patricia Neal gave Gort, all the while thinking, "W(hy)TF did I get within 5 miles of this thing?"
I think the game itself is the big reason. Throwing lefthanded is only an advantage at two positions, pitcher and first base. It's not an option for three positions, virtually not an option at a fourth (catcher) and is neutral in the outfield.
But pitcher is the only position where throwing lefthanded is specifically selected for. Most talented lefthanded throwing baseball players are given a shot on the mound. Their batting (where being lefthanded is an advantage) is not important, so the fact that some of them prefer to swing righthanded may not be an issue in their development. Lefty throwers who aren't pitchers may be more encouraged to swing the stick from the left side as well, or less inclined to make it due to their inherent competitive disadvantages (both throwing and batting).
The game itself and genetics contributes to the paucity of BR/TL players.
There's an entire chapter in Tim Kurkjian's book on this issue of handedness. He's got a *lot* of stories on this: guys who play above the waist one handed (baseball, tennis) and below the waist (hockey, golf) the other, or soft touch (ping pong, putting) one way and hard touch (baseball, driver) the other. BTW, on the whole his book "Is This a Great Game, or What?" is a fun read.
The only thing I do left handed is play hockey, but I barely consider that a righty/lefty thing. To me it always made more sense to play left handed. If you play hockey left handed, it's actually your right hand that is on the stick 100% of the time. It's a lot easier to play with one hand on the stick when it's your dominant hand, and I generate most of my power with my right hand anyway. The left hand is essentially a fulcrum. There's an interesting New York Times article on this.
I don't understand why this is so popular. Batting right-handed puts you at a disadvantage in two major ways: you're facing more same-handedness pitchers, and you're further from 1B. I would think practically everyone would be strongly encouraged to bat left-handed if at all capable of doing so.
I'm a pretty terrible athlete, but I can't even complete a baseball swing right-handed. It's one of the most unnatural motions.
Do you have a dominant eye?
If so, all other tings being equal you should bat opposite your dominant eye.
If you are righthanded, and your dominant eye is your left, if you can physically swing a bat as well lefthanded as righthanded- you should bat left.
Back when I played regularly, the fingertips on my fret hand were callused to the point where I really couldn't feel much with them. I'd much rather have that on my non-dominant hand.
If so, all other tings being equal you should bat opposite your dominant eye.
I have surgically corrected vision, so not anymore. Prior to the surgery, I used to be left-eye-dominant for close vision and right-eye-dominant for far vision. Which side should I have batted based on that.
All other things aren't equal, though. I would think that you'd need to be substantially better from the right side to make up for the pitcher handedness and distance from 1B issues, especially at the non-professional level where it's probably closer to 90% right-handed pitching.
The brown eye.
Also I bat right, but he didn't find that interesting.
I typically do everything with my right hand, but I can hit left (albeit with no power) and I swing an axe backwards (left on the bottom). I've tried to teach myself to throw left handed, and I just cant do it. I could learn to write left handed, but throwing just feels wrong.
Canada has a very high percentage of left-handed golfers because it's pretty common for right-handers to shoot left in hockey (nobody really knows why. This is much less common in the US) and an awful lot of people who shoot left will golf left.
EDIT: Come to that, the choice is often made before the kid can actually shoot. Watch young kids play hockey on ice and the pretty much poking the puck a few inches at a time and reaching way out in front.
EDIT2: My first stick was left-handed. Didn't pick it, it was a gift. Picked basically because it seemed the right size.
I wondered this too, then figured it out when I started playing Guitar Hero and experimented playing lefty. It's the timing. It's not that hard to press frets with your nondominant hand when you've got a fraction of a beat (a third of a second or so) to settle the muscle motions into place. It's a lot harder for the nondominant hand to strum accurately within 10 ms of the beat.
I do everything right-handed with no exceptions. About the only things I can do at all with my left hand are throwing a Frisbee and juggling, and both of those are thanks to significant time of deliberate practice. (I'm still better righty at both.)
You'd think that batting righty would be discouraged left handed pitchers simply because it leaves their pitching elbow exposed and at risk of injury from HBP. they're going to be crappy hitters either way, so why not just make them bat lefty and get their pitching arms out of harm's way?
It's that and the touch and attack of picking, with a pick or finger picking. You need to do a lot more subtle movements with the picking hand.
I play guitar right, soccer left, dribble right, golf right.
I don't know why we call it batting right-handed (good question) but part of the correlation is that the footwork is the same. If you're throwing/batting right-handed you're leading with your left foot and anchoring with your right foot, and vice versa. The seems to matter for most people - using one foot as a consistent anchor, the other as a consistent approach.
Sudden power in your forties? Steroids.
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