In focus this week--Lefty/Righty Won-Loss records. I've been a keen observer of winning percentage versus left since bellyaching to Lance a few seasons back about the chronic underperformance of my not-so Screaming Bats (Pythagorean won-loss records are the subject for another day, however), when Lancie essentially said, you pretty much suck because you can't beat a lefty to save your life. (Easy for him to say--he never has to face Whitey Ford!) In addition, I've been monitoring the development of the league's promising young lefties since trading away Johnny Antonelli two seasons ago. And it's not just Johnny A.--it occurs to me that all the best young pitchers come at you from the
first-base side--Whitey, Antonelli, Pierce. (In a clash of the titans, check out this box from a recent faceoff between the Chairman of the Board and the fireballing Anontelli. All you've got from the right side are
Captain Stu-bing and Mike Forniel . . . oops.
   Help is on the way, though.  Only Podres and Score (another former Superba) are southpaws among the league's top-15 pitching prospects, and three other young righties just finding their way on the circuit--Herbert, Ramos, and Conley--have huge upside.
   Lefties sport a better-than-.500 record against the league, going a total of nine games over the mid-line. That said, I had thought lefties would fare even better, on the assumption that most teams are built around the notion of righty-mashing, figuring that's where your bread is most-often buttered. Add to that the fact that Whitey Ford alone is nine games over .500 and singlehandedly accounts for the entire league-wide difference in L/R W-L %! What conclusions am I left with? Hell if I know, but I did this team-by-team write-up anyway, so might as well post it. 

	Overall				vs Lefties				vs Righties
Team	W	L	%		W	L	%		W	L	%	L%-R%
Detroit	20	45	.308		9	12	.429		11	33	.250	179
Washington	39	28	.582		15	7	.682		24	21	.533	148
Chicago	38	28	.576		11	8	.579		27	20	.574	4
Louisville	35	31	.530		10	10	.500		25	21	.543	-43
Brooklyn	41	25	.621		13	9	.591		28	16	.636	-45
Los Angeles	28	38	.424		8	13	.381		20	25	.444	-63
New York	31	36	.463		10	14	.417		21	22	.488	-72
San Francisco	28	38	.424		7	12	.368		21	26	.447	-78
St. Louis	39	27	.591		7	7	.500		32	20	.615	-115
Boston	32	35	.478		9	16	.360		23	19	.548	-188
League Totals	331	331	.500		99	108	.478		232	223	.510	-32

BROOKLYN
SUPERBAS
41-25   --   13-1

In Flatbush, something is better than nothing--even though the 'Bas give up some ground to lefties, there's excitement over the fact that we're still managing a (modest) winning record versus southpaws. If we can hang on to that distinction, it'd be only the second time in the Superba's five-year span (the only other time being 1953--the lone winning year in BRO history. Thank you very much, Lance Mueller.). To get it done, Superba management lifted a page from Kaplan's book, placing their LH HoFer eighth in the batting order (this after keeping him one or two the last two years).  Random aside: Superb' catching platoon has been anything but so far in '55. RH C Wes Westrum is hitting 70 points below his career OPS (170 off his best year), and LH C Smoky Burgess is fully 150 points off his career OPS standard (-50 OBP, -90 SLG). Can they have been creatures of Ebbets? Is the Frank that unfriendly?

ST. LOUIS
MAROONS
39-27   2   6-7

Beneath the arch in St. Louis , the Maroons are a whopping 12 games over .500, but merely tread water (7-7) against southpaws. Let's start at the top. Leadoff man extraordinaire Gil Coan gives way to the ancient Dom DiMaggio v. L, a 50-60 point give-up in OBP. What's more, Stan the Man is merely mortal against lefties, giving up 250 points of OPS to come in around .750--35-year old Connie Ryan hits better than that! Kokos in the cleanup spot more than holds his own, but the Wyrostek/Crowe platoon in the five hole gives up 150 points v L. But most peculiar, momma, is this--Junior Stephens, three-time All-Star with better than .900 OPS hits out of the eight hole versus lefties. Let's assume that this was a decision the commish made while in a Thera-Flu-induced stupor.

WASHINGTON
MONUMENTS
39-28   2.5   6-8

The team that shows the second-biggest improvement when you compare overall win pct. with win pct. v left is in the nation's capital. This is amazing on the face of it when you consider that Kaplan has three LH pokers in the lineup and a relatively weak righty side to his catching platoon, and all these guys are mashed into the bottom four spots in the order. That includes the immortal "Silver Fox," who hits out of the eight hole! It helps I suppose that the first four guys in the lineup have OPS in excess of .900 v L.

CHICAGO
COLTS
38-28   3   7-7

In Chicago , more fans will soon be making their way to Wrigley courtesy of a new stop on the el-train. What they're going to find are two of the best young pitchers in the game in Whitey and Pedro, and a team that's completely indifferent to the opposing starter--there's absolutely no difference between win percent versus left or right. Chalk it up to the fact that the Colts run with more platoon players than any other team--five of their eight spots are manned by PPTers (part-time players). The other three go R-L-R: "Mr. Colt" Ernie Banks, highly valued lefty-poking catcher Yogi Berra, and the slugging Ozark Ike.

LOUISVILLE
COLONELS
35-31   6   4-10

Why sweat the details? The Colonels are in the pennant race! Finger-lickin' good is the fact that owner Mark Allen has a lifetime lease/option on arguably the best lefty of the bunch, 25-year old Johnny A.  Even though LOU is spared the agony of facing the Rochester native and Korean War vet, they simply break even against southpaws. Of course, any assessment of sweet LOU is made more difficult by the fact that Hammerin' Hank played just the first two weeks of the season before doing an extended tour on the DL. Though it took two guys to replace him, the Valo/Bauer platoon has been excellent. Less than excellent: receiver Ed Bailey. Then again, I could look past his 600 OPS, too, if I knew I had a 24-year old lefty-hitting catcher rated brilliant for power.

BOSTON
BEACONS
32-35   9.5   6-8

In Boston, the Beacons are doing anything but showing the way against lefties, sporting the worst winning percentage in the league against southpaws (.360). Factor in that Fenway is lefty-unfriendly, and you have to have a whole bunch of guys who see their bats go from tree trunks to toothpicks when the ball's coming from the other side of the dish. Sure enough, the very heart of the Beantowners' order is lefty-averse--Junior Gilliam, Easy Ed Mathews and The Mick give up about 200 points apiece in OPS. Torgy (two-time Gold Glove winner and perennial top-5 SBer with a 900 OPS v R) rides the pine! Case closed. And in other revoltin' player developments, Eddie Mathews' eye no longer appears to be as discerning at the plate. After dealing blows to both the team's twenty-something HoFers, what does Iron Mike do for an encore, pour sugar in Charlie's gas tank?

NEW YORK
GOTHAMS
31-36   10.5   8-6

In the Bronx, this New York club also gives up a modest amount versus lefties, also has a weaker-than-expected tandem behind the dish, and also pushes a key lefty down in the lineup to hide his weak stick. How weak? One-time Superba "Lefty" Larry Doby is a full 300 points of OPS better versus righties; earning him a demotion from the #3 to #6 hole. Wally Moon is 200 points worse versus L, and yet he actually got moved up in the order--he leads off! Admittedly, though, Carrington's options are limited--the OF is deep, leaving Moon to play 1B, for which the Gothams have no ready RH stick. 

LOS ANGELES
OUTLAWS
28-38   13   5-8

Only Detroit has a worse record than Los Angeles against right-handed pitching.  But that doesn't mean they are any good against lefties.  On the contrary, the expansion Outlaws are equal-opportunity losers, and their lefty-righty disparity is a middle-of-the pack 63 percentage points.  Most of the big sticks (Campy, Puddin Head, Hermanski) are fairly well balanced.  Bobby Avila is the only regular with a 200+ drop0ff vs. lefties.  Meanwhile, slugging Del Ennis is crushing lefties, to the tune of a .636 SLG and 1.024 OPS (compared to .261/.535 vs. R).

SAN FRANCISCO
SPIDERS
28-38   13   7-6

The Spiders have the second worst record against lefties, and the third worst lefty-righty disparity.  The biggest offenders?  Willard Marshall and Solly Hemus.  Marshall, the Detroit castoff, leads the team in batting, RBIs, and hits, but his batting against lefties leaves much to be desired.  He bats .373 against righties, but .206 against southpaws, a 167 point dropoff.  His OPS drops a whopping 469 points from .991 to .522.  Shortstop Hemus is having a career year, but not versus southpaws.  Solly's lefty-dropoff has gone from 100 points to roughly 400 points, even as his overall OPS has jumped 150 points to a career-high .904.

DETROIT
SOUND
20-45   20.5   6-7

In Detroit , you can't dance to the Sound, which frankly defy description. They sport the worst record in the game (.308 win pct.); are dead last in runs scored; next to last in HRs (they have the league-leader in Kiner at 19, but you have to drop 15 dongs before you find three guys milling about shamefacedly in the neighborhood of 4); and yet for all that, they show the biggest *improvement* in win percent v L (.429). That's a gain of 120 points versus lefties. And most mind-boggling of all, every player in their lineup save one is essentially the same *or worse* in terms of OPS when they face lefties as opposed to righties. The one player that's an exception to the rule? Kiner. And the difference? 400 points of OPS--from .900 to 1.300! Can one player make that big a difference? When the guy *slugs* more than .850, I think the answer is yes. Consolation prize for Sound owner Bradley McNeely--his beloved LSU Tigers dismantled my Sooners to win a national title. Wrong sport, but a guy's gotta take his strokes when he can get 'em.