Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 25, 2008
Switch-aroo

My latest column at SportingNews.com looks at the strategy of a switch hitter facing a switch pitcher.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:29 PM | Strategy | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Your idea is kitschy, but sort of ridiculous. A pitcher throwing from the wind-up can of course take off his glove and make a last second decision which hand to throw with after the batter is set in the box. Because there was a batter on first base was the reason any of this came up in the first place.

Long live Greg Harris!

Posted by: Drew at June 25, 2008 02:05 PM

Nice!

But you picked easy examples ;-).

Chipper has a dominant strategy (bat lefty), since that's his better choice no matter which hand the pitcher uses. (In fact, Chipper should never bat from the right side at all, according to your chart!) And against Melky, the *pitcher* has a dominant strategy (throw lefty), since that's better in case Melky chooses to bat left and no worse when Melky bats righty.

Dominant strategies simplify these games. A more interesting game arises when there is no dominant strategy for either side. Can you find a batter like that?

Posted by: James at June 25, 2008 02:05 PM

I was under the impression that there was a rule instituted when Greg Harris was pitching that the pitcher -must- declare which side he's pitching from first.

From an article (http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/08/Sports/No_gimmick__Floridian.shtml )


There is no rule prohibiting a pitcher from switching hands from batter to batter. But under major-league regulations, he can't do it pitch to pitch; once he "declares" which hand he'll use for that batter, he has to stick to it.

Also, there are no rules prohibiting a hitter from moving from one batter's box to the other between pitches except, according to Rule 6.06(b), "while the pitcher is in position ready to pitch."

Posted by: Digit at June 25, 2008 02:58 PM
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