FanPost

Ozzie Albies and Hitting From Your Dominant Side When It Matters The Least

Ozzie Albies has hit .279/.332/.473 in his career, good for a career wRC+ of 109, or 9% better than league average throughout his two-and-a-half season career. Last year, Ozzie was even better, hitting .295/.352/.500, which added up to a 117 wRC+.

But, as many of you know, Ozzie is a switch-hitter. In 2019 alone, Left-Handed Ozzie had a slash line of .267/.333/.444 (that's a 98 wRC+, otherwise known as Ender Inciarte circa 2017). That's pretty good, especially considering his positive base running and fielding. Left-Handed Ozzie is a good player. Looking at Ender Inciarte's FanGraphs page from 2017, with his worse baserunning and slightly better fielding playing a more prime position, we could expect Only Lefty-Ozzie to be worth about 2.9 fWAR if he played the entire season from that side.

Right-Handed Ozzie, however, is a god. In 2019, despite a Jeff Francoeur-esque walk rate of 3.8%, he put up a slash line of .389/.414/.685, which equaled a 180 wRC. You know who had a 180 wRC+ in 2019? Mike Trout. Mike Trout's fWAR was almost 8, despite only playing 134 games last season. Ozzie Albies is Mike Trout when he hits right-handed. Righty-Ozzie is the best player on the Braves times 2 over a full season.

So what? Righty-Ozzie is a god, but god-mode only comes out against lefties, because that's when he hits right-handed. Right? Right. No... Wrong...

There has been a total of four (4!) times Ozzie has sat in the right-hand batters box against a righty in his career. Four. And none of them have mattered, as all four PAs have added up to a whopping -.007 WPA, despite a .500 OBP .

In 2018, the Braves faced off against the Red Sox. In a shootout, the Red Sox had already turned to their bullpen in the form of knuckleballer Steven Wright. Ozzie, sensing it may be more beneficial, turned to the other side of the plate with the bases empty and one out in a one-run game. He flew out. Despite the close game (5-4 at the time) the fly out only pegged him for a -.020 WPA.

Roughly four months later, the pair met again, this time with the Red Sox up four. In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and a runner on second, he walked. That mattered? Right? No. WPA only gave him .013 and Culberson struck out to end the ending. A meaningless switch, but a positive result. This would probably be the most meaningful plate appearance of the four. The next two become utterly purposeless.

On April 21, 2019, the Braves hammered the Cleveland Indians. After allowing 11 runs, the Indians figured with wasn't worth sending an actual pitcher to the mound, and let catcher Kevin Plawecki pitch. He was the only Indians pitcher that night to not allow a base runner, which naturally means Right-Handed Ozzie did not do anything either. This AB gave Ozzie a -.000 WPA. Ozzie had decided to hit right-handed against righty-Plawecki in (at the time) an 11-3 game. Because platoon advantage?

Ozzie's logic from that April carried over into another blowout against the Brewers in May. With no on and no out, Ozzie decided it was the best time for him to gain the platoon advantage in an 8 run game. He walked. His WPA for this AB? .000. After a Joyce strikeout, an Acuña walk, and a Swanson double-play, the inning was over, as was (for the time) Ozzie's experiment. As of now, Ozzie's turning to God Mode against righties has yielded him a .000/.500/.000 slashline, which has led to zero impact on the outcome of the game. For Ozzie, hitting from your best side means doing it when it matters the least. And I guess that's the takeaway, Ozzie Albies hits like Mike Trout from the right-side, but he'll only hit right-handed if you're right-handed if you're a knuckleballer, or a position player pitching in a game that has already been decided.

Also Fangraphs is wrong because they've only accounted for three of the four plate-appearances (they forgot Plawecki's.).

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