http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_hitting_chart.jsp?c_id=tor&playerID=430832&statType=1

. . . all he does is pull the ball.

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All of Bautista’s 2010 HRs are to R or RC. Since 2005, Bautista has hit 2 HR to L. And those two were just barely to RC (somewhere over 80 degrees).

This is not meant to detract from Bautista’s skill, or meant to insinuate that Bautista (and therefore Bautista’s FBB owners) are getting by on luck. It just seems that if you’re not a threat to hit with power to the opposite field, eventually everyone will pitch you away, and you’ll have to get by on pitching mistakes or situations in which the pitcher must throw you a strike. Once this occurs, your HRs will decrease unless you suddenly are able to hit to the opposite field. The league could have already adapted to Bautista’s knack for pulling the ball, I have no idea how I could figure that out though.

@Jangles: Those guys do different things. Young for steals, Raburn for power.

@black love: If you don’t start him at home, you shouldn’t own him.

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Headley
Beckham
Span
Eric Young Jr.
Raburn

Uggla was the closest to someone who seems to always pull HR that I found through guessing and browsing.

CQ has at least 8 non-pull HR this year.

As far as players defenses shift against, I checked A Gonz and Ortiz.

Remarkably, A Gonz may have more to left this year (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_13&type=hitter ), so putting the shift on must only be effective because he only hits fly balls to left (or, it’s not effective at all, and managers are stupid).

Ortiz has pulled a majority of his HR this year (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_451&type=hitter ), but even as early as last year he was distributing HR more evenly (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_451&type=hitter ). (FYI, I don’t know that these links will work properly- I cut an pasted the urls for 2009 and 2010 data and the urls seem to be identical).

Who else do defenses routinely shift against?

Some more anecdotal proof that you shouldn’t pitch Bautista inside: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=11294279 . The C (Buck?) sets up outside, and (not sure who the P is) misses inside. I watched a few more, and they all seemed to be inside pitches, but I got sick of having to watch the intro ads. Here’s another one, though: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10894581 .

NOW I’m getting to work.

@HotCorner: http://razzball.com/fantasy-baseball-vs-fantasy-basketball/

@danimal35: Drop Wood and Norris for Bailey and JZ.

@danimal35: Yeah, bunch of power hitters are pull crazy.

@Art Vandelay: Theriot…

@melvin: I’ve considered extending it. Davis…

also have 5 closers including Takahashi and Lyon

Homer Bailey, Harden, and JZ are free agents

thinking drop Wood for JZ immediately…but then what to do with the rest? I have no depth (or front end starter for that matter) and am stuck streaming…drop Norris for Harden or Bailey? or pick up all three and drop Takahashi or Lyon? help please

One thing that’s interesting is that all of Bautista’s HR are to LF or LC. (See http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_716&type=hitter ). The only other player with lot of HR and such a distribution is Uggla. It seems to me that if these players are just seeking to pull the ball, pitchers should be able to take advantage of this. Hamilton (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_422&type=hitter ) and Pujols (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_16&type=hitter ) have much more even distributions, which I think shows that a pitcher should have a much harder time preventing them from hitting homers (same with Votto, Miggy, and even Dunn). I don’t have any data to back this up, but it seems that a hitter who consistently pulls the ball will not be able to consistently hit HR, because it should be easier for the league’s pitching to adapt to him. Here’s one cherry-picked example to prove my point- 2009 Aaron Hill (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2009_1441&type=hitter ).

And sort of relevant to this discussion, Josh Hamilton is a beast. His average HR distance is like 420′ (the average is around 396). This 485′ shot might be skewing the results, tho: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=9435897

@chris: Post coming today about September call ups.

As a Napoli owner I’m on one hand thrilled to get this level of production from the C spot, but on the other hand fuck you Scioscia.

@thegeniusking: Not quite there yet.

@Wah: I agree with that you said each will give you, so go with the one you need.

@struggler: I’d lose Figgy.

@royce!: Yup

@ruah: Gregor…Johnson

@Bob: Ha