Tom Gorzelanny And The Importance Of Southpaws

A week after the Indians signed lefty reliever Joe Thatcher to a minor league contract, another southpaw signed on the “dotted line,” giving the club another option out of the bullpen.

Tom Gorzelanny signed a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training back in December. The 33-year-old spent last season with the Tigers organization, appearing in 48 major league games alongside nine outings at AAA. In those 48 appearances, Gorzelanny posted a 5.95 ERA to go with a 1.729 WHIP and 8.2 K/9. Gorzelanny will attempt to make the Indians’ roster out of spring training, but he could begin the year at Columbus.

The Indians are progressing with adding as much left-handed depth to the bullpen as possible. It’s a good strategy, considering the tremendous platoon advantage when a left-handed pitcher faces a left-handed batter.

Left-handers sit right in the cross-hairs of the supply-demand curve in Major League Baseball due to the limited player-pool as well as a league-wide desire to exploit platoon splits (see table for 2015 figures). Just 10 percent of the world is left-handed, yet southpaws have been on the mound for about 31 percent of all plate appearances last season. Lefty batters make up about 44 percent of plate appearances, a function of the advantages that are inherent in a two-step head-start down the line, combined with the reality that it is much easier to switch sides of the plate than it is to alternate throwing arms.

The greatest platoon advantage across the board is for left-handed pitchers (LHP) against like-handed batters (LHB), with a 70-point difference in OPS when compared to southpaw performance against right-handed hitters. The need for left-handed pitchers has lowered the expectations for velocity and command in the professional ranks. This relative lack of stuff underlies the perceived need for coaches to tinker with left-handers’ mechanics by “messing” with arm slots, positions on the rubber, and even stride direction- landing closed or open.

The typical lefty is usually weird in his delivery, with some sort of unorthodoxy that adds to the deception of his offerings. The strategies tend to ignore the corollary that tough angles on left-handed batters tend to give right-handers a longer look at the ball, further exacerbating the platoon splits and limiting the LOOGY‘s functionality, leaving them extremely vulnerable to pinch-hitters from the right side.

The preferred method for left-handers is to release the ball from an extreme angle, a concept that has created a general approach dictating that a left-hander should pitch from the first-base side of the rubber. In the same vein, some coaches will advocate a strategy for directing a pitcher’s stride at a closed angle, in which a southpaw appears to be charging toward the left-hand batter’s box instead of guiding his momentum toward the plate. These pitchers will finish with the lead foot positioned to the arm-side of the centerline. The closed angle often requires a pitcher to over-rotate the shoulders in order to hit targets on the right-hand side of the plate, creating an obstacle to pitch execution. The technique is best employed with short relievers who face a greater proportion of like-sided hitters, as starting pitchers would be easily defeated by an opposing manager who stacked the lineup with right-handed bats.

Sidewinder pitchers, or those with a submarine delivery as we see with Joe Thatcher, tend to fall into the LOOGY camp due to the natural platoon splits that are generated from their flat trajectories, making them perfect candidates for further angular exploitation via a closed stride. The platoon phenomenon provides the functional basis for closed-stride LOOGYs, though it is a questionable strategy to mold these left-handed pitchers in a way that disrupts the other mechanical elements in the effort to achieve an advantage versus a single batter. It is rare to spot a right-handed pitcher who exaggerates a closed stride, but a general acceptance of the philosophy for southpaws has created a tendency for some starting pitchers to adopt the technique, despite the fact that starters are expected to face opposing lineups that are stacked with platoon bats.

The southpaw does not need to be a relief ace to be effective. He just needs to thank the Lord he was born a lefty.

Throw in Gorzelanny, who might not be as unorthodox as Thatcher but will fool a left-handed batter simply because he is a left-handed pitcher.

Here is an example against Eric Hosmer:

The ball is hidden well, thus successfully hiding it from the left-handed batter. Gorzelanny has what scouts refer to as having an “S-shape” to his momentum, due to a tendency to stride far to the left prior to redirecting his energy back toward the target. The alternative is for a lefty to stride straight at the plate, like former Atlanta Brave Jonny Venters, where the front foot is positioned along a straight line from the back foot to the plate.

No tricks, no gimmicks. Just being a lefty with a closed stride does the trick.

It’s a good thing the Indians are stockpiling southpaws for the bullpen. Hopefully Gorzelanny becomes part of a “two-headed” monster that will retire left-handed batters when it counts.