why do so many pitcher bat opposite handed?

[mo42nyy]

Obviosly its advantageous to bat left handed so many right handed position players bat lefty. You rarely see a left handed throwing postion player bat righty (rickey henderson and hal chase are probably the most famous) and dont see many left handed switch hitters (berkman, melky cabrera, jt snow used to but gave it up) probably because its a waste of time to learn since most of your at bats will be left handed anyway (in the major leagues you might face 30% lefites but growing up its rare. In most years I was the only left handed pitcher in my little league.)
However for some reason a ton of pitchers bat opposite handed which makes no sense at all. Most of them cant hit anyway so why even bother. Other than Mike Hampton I dont even know why their teams let them bat with their throwing arm exposed (Doc Gooden wanted to switch hit but the mets wouldnt let him.) A ton left handed pitchers bat right handed. It makes absolutely no sense at all.
I doubt any of you have thought about it but if you have any theories Id be interested in them.

[prohornblower]

Not really sure, but yeah, it is pretty silly to have your pitching elbow exposed. I think John Tudor used to hit right-handed. Maybe it's just natural for many of them to hit righty? Or maybe their dads teach them how to hit (naturally righthanded), before they realize their son is lefthanded and they just get used to it?

And FYI, Jason Lane throws left and hits strictly righty.

Has anybody seen Billy Wagner hit? Apparently he is righthanded but learned to throw lefty due to elbow problems. Ridiculous that he throws 100mph with his "off-arm".

[zer0]

i really have no idea, but the bottom hand is what generates the bat speed/power, and for a pitcher, batting "opposite" would mean your strong hand is on bottom

[stormstarter28]

Can you give me some examples of pitchers that do this? I watch a lot of games, and don't really notice it very often.

[Bill Murphy]

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Not really sure, but yeah, it is pretty silly to have your pitching elbow exposed.

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I'm pretty sure this is it entirely.

[siccjay]

Arm protection for the win.

[BobOjedaFan]

There are many examples of bitchers who throw lefty batting right-handed. IT makes no sense at all I have always wodnered it myself. I have a theory....

A lot of left-handed people are semi-ambidextrious and do alot of other things right-handed. Many of my left-handed friends bat righty. My guess is that any proffessional baseball player who was serious about hitting and displayed any leanings towards being a lefty was forced to bat left-handed at an early age. Pitchers however may not have all been forced if their parents were only focusing on forcing them to be good pitchers, so the child retains his sem-ambidextrious qualities.

Again , only a theory, its mine ive never heard anyone else say it but its the only thing that makes sense to me. It's totally stupid to bat the opposite way because that EXPOSES your arm, that is not the answer clearly

[tdarko]

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i really have no idea, but the bottom hand is what generates the bat speed/power, and for a pitcher, batting "opposite" would mean your strong hand is on bottom

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This isn't true.

[BobOjedaFan]

lol if the bottom hand generated the speed/power then batting left-handed would be called batting right-handed, lol

[kyleb]

[ QUOTE ]
i really have no idea, but the bottom hand is what generates the bat speed/power, and for a pitcher, batting "opposite" would mean your strong hand is on bottom

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not true. Do the 'top hand' drill to see why.