MLB: 4 Things You Need To Know About The 2014 World Series

Don’t Worry Too Much About San Francisco Hitters Against Left-Handed Pitching

It’s going to be really annoying when it’s late in one of the World Series games, and Harold Reynolds or someone else on the broadcast starts warning us that the Giants have struggled against lefties in this postseason. The Giants have struggled, slashing .204/.306/.222, which is quite bad, but and the Royals have decent left-handed relief options in their pen, and a left-handed starter in Jason Vargas, and Reynolds or someone else annoying will assume the Giants simply can’t hit left-handers, when in all honesty, we don’t have a large enough sample to judge that yet (and particularly in the playoffs, where the Giants have played all of 10 games). You’ll be assaulted with graphics showing meaningless stats of pitcher versus batter matchups (also too small a sample to be useful), and told the Royals have a huge advantage here.

Well, the Royals have a great pen, but there’s no major advantage to be had for KC in this area, but part of the reason for the Giants struggles is not having Angel Pagan at all this October and having Michael Morse limited, two of the team’s better hitters against left-handed pitching. Also, the Giants are actually hurt by AT&T Park, and their average skews better on the road as a result. It might be a slight advantage for the Royals, but it’s not a large enough one to really get worked up over.