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Friday, March 19, 2010

Ryan Howard Hitting to Left Field

I was reading fangraphs.com and found an interesting piece of information in an article by Dave Cameron. We all know Ryan Howard is at his best when he is hitting the ball to left, but did we really know how good he was?

Here's the excerpt:

"I can’t end without giving a nod to Ryan Howard, however. The big Phillies slugger is known for his opposite field moonshots, and the numbers bear this out. Here’s Howard’s breakdown.
To Left: .701 (!!!)
To Center: .480
To Right: .327
Ryan Howard’s slugging percentage on fly balls to left field is a staggering 1.138. That’s not his OPS – that’s his SLG. 71% of all of his balls in play to left field are fly balls, and 27 percent of those leave the yard. You may remember from yesterday that the league average HR/FB for a lefty to left field was 3%. Howard’s HR/FB to left is nine times the league average.
We don’t have the historical evidence to prove it, of course, but I’d wager that Ryan Howard may just be the greatest opposite field power hitter in the history of the game."
If Howard can consistently hit the ball to left and improve against breaking balls and lefties then the numbers could potentially be record breaking. Good news though, if you're like me and follow every Spring Training game you'd know that Ryan has done some of that over his past few games.

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