Lefty vs. righty vs. switch ratios

Unfortunately, I can't site a source but I think these numbers are accurate for the MLB in 2013.

54% right
33% left
13% switch

These are raw numbers for the Perfect Game Top 100 Ranked players by high school graduation year.

    2013  2014  2015  2016
    ----  ----  ----  ----
L L   24    14     8    11
L R   18    11    11    25
R L    2     3     3     1
R R   51    68    73    61
S L    1     1     0     0
S R    4     3     5     1

Catchers:
L R    5     3     4     7
R R    5     5     6     6
S R    0     0     0     1

A very small sample so I don't think you can draw any real conclusions, but those who list catcher as primary position are definitely more likely to go L/R than the general population.

My son's high school team had five lefty hitters. Four of them threw right and hit left. I started my kids throws right, bats left without thinking about the hitting aspect of it. At two youngest wasn't showing a preference of hand so I taught him to throw right. It turned out three years later we found out he was naturally left handed.

My oldest son bats and throws lefthanded but writes righthanded while my younger son bats and throws righthanded but writes lefthanded! Go figure!

my 2014 throws and bats right handed, plays basketball left handed, writes left handed. Future college baseball coach came to a basketball game not to long ago to watch and basically show support I suppose. After first quarter he came up to me and asked, if Jeremy wasn't a RHP, He had seen him pitch roughly 6 to 8 times but thought he was going crazy

Thanks for the input.

Looking at the PG statistics, small sample true, but I'm a scientist and can always draw conclusions (they might be wrong of course)! For all positions, it seems pretty clear that batting lefty/throwing righty is disproportionately represented. Which leads me to believe that there is a whole LOT of kids being enourgaged to bat lefty, likely from a very early age, for a competitive advantage. I'm sure there are kids like my son who has a natural proclivity (biological/genetic) component to do this and who would struggle to bat RH even though they throw RH.

For catchers this is even more pronounced. As I've heard and read many places "every team should have a defensive-minded, LH batting catcher." it would appear that they do in that almost half of the top PG-ranked catchers fit the bill. In other words, I highly doubt this is an accident/statistical anomoly.

Lastly, I wonder if the trend to high proportion of "trained" lefty hitters will ever creep back to more RH hitters coming up. Taken to an extreme: we need more RH hitters!

My son's club team has 4L/R (2 catchers) and 1 S/R players.  All but one of the fathers of those kids played baseball beyond high school (and the other one wanted to). Not a coincidence or accident. I could definitely see a day in the not too distant future when the L/R kids outnumber the R/R kids at the higher levels of youth ball.

This topic has me wondering... at what age/level do the left/right, right/left match-ups really start to matter statistically? For most of youth ball, it seems like most kids (right and left) do better against RHPs just because they see them more (and pitches from LHPs have more natural movement).

Not when two thirds of the pitches thrown in the majors are thrown from the right side and 90% of youth pitchers are right handed.

Fair point. Although MLB is not necessarily a good example, I've heard several times that a particular team needs a power RH hitter, or simply another RH bat. I recall the latter with respect to the Philles a few years ago that was stacked with lefties, maybe 6 or even 7 if LHP. On in other words, I suppose it is possible to actually have too many lefties in the BO.

During the 1980's when American Legion teams in Northern California were very strong [over 40 players in the League made the MLB]

As the coach I selected every talented left handed hitter in Sonoma County. I stacked the line up 1-5 with lefty hitters, unless I noticed a Lhp on the opposing team.

If I noticed a lhp or OF, I then alternated the line-up. It is the ability to hit the breaking ball that determines the success of any hitter.

We won 80% of our games and all our players played in College.

This year our Yankees International Scout team in Australia had 5 left handed hitters and 3 players who ran the 60 yard under 6.6 seconds.

Bob

Interesting topic!  Without doing any research here is what I think I have noticed.  Most "power" arms (both position and pitcher) throw right handed.  Most of these power arms also hit right handed.

Obviously all position players throw with one hand and catch with the other.  The actual hand/eye skill involves catching more than throwing.  Hitting could be described as a hand/eye skill.  So hitting from the opposite side than throwing side actually is not that difficult for some.  Then those that have power arms tend to create more bat speed from the throwing side.  They use the same attributes (body and hands) used in throwing to hit with power. Same thing if they are L-L or R-R. Typically one of those tend to hit with more power than R-L or switch hitters. Leads me to believe in most cases more power from throwing side but possibly better overall hitter from the glove side.

i think if anyone were to do the research the above might prove to be fairly accurate with some obvious exceptions. And it is true that there are more RHPs at every level.  What you see the most becomes a bit easier to hit.  

Let's start the research by looking at the MLB players that have hit the most HRs.  I'm doing this off of memory, so sorry if I missed someone.

Barry Bonds L-L

Hank Aaron R-R

Babe Ruth L-L

Willie Mays R-R

Alex Rodriguez R-R

Ken Griffey L-L

Sammy Sosa R-R

Mark McGwire R-R

Harmon Killebrew R-R

Frank Robinson R-R

Mickey Mantle S-R

Manny Ramirez R-R

Mike Schmidt R-R

Reggie Jackson L-L

Rafael Palmeiro L-L

Albert Pujols R-R

In fact, the only guys I can think of that hit lots of HRs hitting from the opposite of throwing side is Ted Williams and Jim Thome.  Nearly all switch hitters are natural right hand hitters.  Those that are natural left hand and hitters don't gain much by becoming switch hitters unless they have a lot more power from the right side.

People often talk about the toughest pitch to hit.  To me it is any good breaking ball thrown to a LHH from a LHP. 

Once again this is an interesting topic.

Given 10% of kids are natural lefties and MLB would like the lineup to be balanced, wouldn't it make sense that a righty learning to hit left would be increasing his odds?

I wasn't thinking that far ahead when I taught my kids to bat left. I hit left because I was athletically left handed. I knew the benefits of batting left. Plus it would be easier to analyze and correct. It was what I knew. Now throw on top of that I was fast and their mother was a track star. The decision was a no brainer. 

Today we remember Ralph Kiner. Please read his bio. One of the great hitters.

http://www.jockbio.com/Classic/Kiner/Kiner_bio.html

Notice where he hit left handed in fast pitch softball and right handed in baseball.

"a new true story".

Sunday I had an opportunity to talk with a former Goodwill Series player now OF with the Detroit Tigers. In 1992 before we traveled to Korea, I pitched to Torii in the batting cage and convinced him to hit left handed. Sunday for the 1st time he told me after the return from Korea he hit 5 HR left handed in 4 HS games in Arkansas.

For players this is an individual decision and will take hours of hard work.

We also discuss how to take the batting cage mentality to the field.

Bob

Thanks Jerry, I'm feeling a little better about not knowing to raise my kid hitting lefty.

2013 MLB Home Run Leaders:

Chris Davis L-R
Miguel Cabrera R-R
Edwin Encarnacion R-R
Pedro Alvarez L-R
Paul Goldschmidt R-R
Alfonso Soriano R-R
Adam Dunn L-R
Mark Trumbo R-R
Adam Jones R-R
Evan Longoria R-R

2013 MLB Player Batting Averages:
Miguel Cabrera R-R
Michael Cuddyer R-R
Joe Mauer L-R
Mike Trout R-R
Chris Johnson R-R
Freddie Freeman L-R
Yadier Molina R-R
Jayson Werth R-R
Matt Carpenter L-R
Andrew McCutchen R-R