My son is a natural left handed hitter. He hits for power and average from the left side and has not really had a problem facing left handed pitchers to date.
He has been working on batting right handed for years now but has never done it in a game. To be honest he hasn't faced that many left handed pitchers in game situations but I think he handles them well at this level.
Last night at our indoor winter workout (yes we still have snow on the ground here in NJ) he was hitting with authority left handed, but he was really smashing the ball right handed. To qualify, this is machine pitch (arm machine) at about 50 mph.
He is very excited about the prospect of switch hitting this year. I am all for his switch hitting attempts.
Somewhere in my past baseball life (heard, read or overheard) a statement that since there were far more right handed pitchers in the world, that a natural righty batter was a better candidate to become a switch hitter than a lefty. Since the righty would get more at bats as a lefty against a primarily right handed world.
This is an interesting observation, although not compelling enough to sway my son from his switch hitting attempts. I do realize that if his competition remains similar this year, he will most likely bat right handed less then 5% of the time...
What do you think of the idea of a left handed hitter sticking with just hitting lefty?
How many major league switch hitters started out as natural left handed hitters?
cong
"In baseball, you don't know nothing." - Yogi
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