Why are left handed pitchers sought after?

Question

By my understanding right handed hittes do better than left handed hitters against southpaws. Considering that most hitters in baseball are righthanded, why do GM's and managers start drooling when a lefty player hit the free agency. I'm asking this because Gil Meche and Ted Lilly got big deals despite being mediocre. As did Buerhle even tho he's good.

Answer 1

Lefty pitchers are very rare, which raises their value because there is such a demand for them. Lefty pitchers are sought after because they statistically do better against left-handed hitters, because left-handed hitters have trouble seeing the ball coming from a lefty. As a lefty hitter myself, I can vouch for that. I hate hitting off of lefties.

Also, lefty pitchers can have a slight advantage over righty hitters simply because the arm angle is different, which can cause hitters to make an adjustment which can throw their timing off.

It is said that if you are left-handed and you can throw 86MPH, then you can make it in the major leagues, which shows how rare these pitchers are. Gil Meche is right-handed by the way. He got a huge deal because that's the only way the Royals could get him to play for them.

Answer 2

Good left handed pitchers are hard to come by and you need left handed pitching to stop those teams with good left handed hitters. Also, managers like to bring left handed pitching into the game late to get that one key batter out in a tough situation, such as when David Ortiz comes up with the bases loaded and the score tied in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Answer 3

Cause left handed pitchers are absolutely dominant against left handed batters and are still pretty good against righty batter. Since there are so many dominant left handed hitters like David Ortiz, Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, and others, left handed pitchers really shut those guys down.

Answer 4

its because you need a lefty in your roation to mix things up...give the hitters something new to look at...and you need leftys in your pen because some of the games best and most dangerous hitters are left handed hitter (barry bonds...howard...fielder) and if you have a lefty in the pen you have a better chance to get them out in a critcial point of the game.

and lilly got such a deal because the cubs are stupid and need pitching in general...

Answer 5

Lefties are usually gifts to pitching staffs because they can get certain batters to hit from either their weaker side or against their weaker pitcher. It also keeps managers from stacking the lineup.

Answer 6

becaue every team wants someone to get the lefties out considering that there alot of great left handed hitters

Answer 7

lower back while, righties had the benefit. Then left-surpassed capacity hitters got here alongside and did somewhat properly against the righties. So left-surpassed pitchers have an benefit over the main useful batters interior the sport (the left-surpassed batters).

Answer 8

To pitch against right handed batters.

Answer 9

why not?