Will baseball ever see "switch-pitchers"?

[Slick5150]

Some friends and I were having a discussion the other night about the feasibility of having a switch-pitcher in baseball, that, depending on the batter, could throw either left or right handed. Turns out, there very briefly was one, who in 1995 faced 4 batters in the 9th inning and pitched lefty to 2 of them and righty to the other 2 using an ambidextrous glove.

Link to story about Greg Harris

There would seemingly be a big upside to this possibility, as you'd negate the strategy of stacking the lineup with right handed batters when facing a lefty, and vice versa. Obviously a pitcher might be better from one side or other other (like many switch hitters are), but there would still be an advantage to being able to throw left handed to a power lefty hitter like Jim Thome or someone.

There'd have to be some kind of rule on declaring which side you're going to pitch/bat from, as if a switch pitcher faced a switch-hitter, you'd have them both standing there trying to figure out which side the other was going to play from. So I'd think you'd need a rule stating the batter has to come to the plate and pick a side and stick with it..

But all in all, I think it would be an interesting scenario for baseball. Could a pitcher stay in and throw 150 pitches in a game because he's only thrown 75 from each side? Could a reliever pitch many nights in a row because they only threw from the right side one night, and can pitch entirely from the left the next?

Anyways, there's a random thought for the day.

 

[Modular]

My firstborn son will be able to do this.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Today's pitchers have enough problems throwing from just one side, asking one to be able to perform well from both sides is not really feasible.

 

[maddogchen]

I can throw a football from both sides with good spin and accuracy. But my left arm does not have the arm strength to throw very far. I imagine that would be a potential problem for a baseball starting pitcher. Do you have the arm strength and endurance to make it to 75 pitches for both sides? It would work better as a reliever.

 

[SpunkyJones]

Thats great, I didn't know he got a chance to do it. When he was here is Boston, we were all dying to see him do, but the Sox wouldn't let him.

 

[BeauJangles]

There's a kid in college right now who throws with both arms and is pretty good. A small drawback is that the pitcher must declare what arm he's throwing with for the duration of the at-bat, so he couldn't deliver a righty fastball then a lefty changeup. Other than that, if the kid was effective, he could be devastating because he could almost always have the favorable matchup (except against switch hitters).

What I'm more intrigued by (speaking of strange situations) is the idea of having a guy like Ankiel, who can pitch, hit, and field. Imagine if you had a lefty and righty specialist who were also decent fielders and hitters. Instead of bringing out a new guy to get the 'ideal' matchup you could simply swap the two. One plays LF, while the other pitches. If you switch, the pitcher becomes the LFer and the LFer becomes the pitcher. Hence, you'd could make the change as often as you'd like. This scenario is also much more likely in my mind.

 

[TheFamilyMan]

Yankees drafted a player from Creighton who could do this...don't know if he's played any MLB yet though.

Here's the link to the story.

 

[kranky]

I was sure the Giants had a pitcher in the 60's or 70's named Masanori Murakami who did that, but a little googling doesn't find any reference to it. Must not have happened the way I thought it did.

 

[Mermaidman]

Ever? Probably, but it'll be very unusual. Effective pitching requires more motor skill and finesse than effective batting. (IMO of course.)

 

[BrokenVisage]

You have a better chance at seeing a left-handed catcher in the MLB then a "switch-thrower" on the mound.

 

[MyThirdEye]

Back a few years ago, there was a kid in my high school that payed some hefty fee for a double-handed glove. he would throw curveballs, ect. left handed, and then his fastballs right handed.

he was very effective.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: amjohns5
Back a few years ago, there was a kid in my high school that payed some hefty fee for a double-handed glove. he would throw curveballs, ect. left handed, and then his fastballs right handed.

he was very effective.

why couldn't he just get two gloves?

 

[michaelsslave]

no. i was once watching a baseball game and they said its against the rules. some pitchers have tried it in the past but they only allow batters to switch hit...

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: michaelsslave
no. i was once watching a baseball game and they said its against the rules. some pitchers have tried it in the past but they only allow batters to switch hit...

Its not against the rules. Its been done.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: michaelsslave
no. i was once watching a baseball game and they said its against the rules. some pitchers have tried it in the past but they only allow batters to switch hit...

It's not against the rules. The pitcher must declare what hand he will pitch with prior to the AB and he cannot switch hands during the AB. Other than that it's kosher.

Originally posted by: evident

Originally posted by: amjohns5
Back a few years ago, there was a kid in my high school that payed some hefty fee for a double-handed glove. he would throw curveballs, ect. left handed, and then his fastballs right handed.

he was very effective.

why couldn't he just get two gloves?

I don't believe you can switch gloves during an inning unless the glove is damaged.

Originally posted by: amjohns5
Back a few years ago, there was a kid in my high school that payed some hefty fee for a double-handed glove. he would throw curveballs, ect. left handed, and then his fastballs right handed.

he was very effective.

If he only threw curveballs lefty and fastballs right, he wouldn't have lasted very long... right? Batters would know what pitches were coming and just sit on that pitch.

Like I said above, i don't think you can switch hands mid-AB. Although, I may be getting confused. The rule either states you must declare your hand (and can't change it) prior to each pitch or each AB. ... I'll check.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: evident

Originally posted by: amjohns5
Back a few years ago, there was a kid in my high school that payed some hefty fee for a double-handed glove. he would throw curveballs, ect. left handed, and then his fastballs right handed.

he was very effective.

why couldn't he just get two gloves?

Greg Harris the mlb pitcher mentioned in the OP had an ambidextrous glove made so he could just switch hands with it on the mound.

 

[AMCRambler]

Thats pretty cool. Never thought about it. I'm surprised the Red Sox woldn't let the guy do it.

 

[oogabooga]

there was an article about a kid who can do it (probably linked earlier in the OP i didn't visit the article)

It can happen, but at the moment the kid who can throw that way
1) Can throw subpar major league levels as a right handers
2) can throw no where near the major league level as a lefty, but still better than the vast majority of people.

I think if trends change a little bit in baseball, but I think it's too specified right now for a player like this to thrive.

 

[chuckywang]

If anybody can do it, it would be this Creighton pitcher who pitches with a special glove.

FYI, he did face a switch hitter and after a few moments awkwardness, the umpire declared that the pitcher must choose his arm first, and then the hitter chooses.

 

[FoBoT]

w0w, i am surprised this is possible/has happened
very interesting

 

[imported_Imp]

Not much point. They'll never be able to throw as well with both hands even if they allow it. Most switch hitters I've seen have a "dominant" hand, and even if they can switch, their crappy hand has a sub .200 average (there are exceptions). Same will probably be true of "switch-pitchers". I say just focus on one hand. The switching might be helpful statistically/theoretically, but the best pitchers out there do it with one hand. So you'd probably have to suck to begin with to need to do that.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

From Wikipedia (Link):

n baseball, three 19th-century pitchers are known to have thrown with both hands: Tony Mullane in 1882 and again in 1893, Elton Chamberlain in 1888, and Larry Corcoran in 1884. Greg A. Harris is the only major league pitcher in the modern era to pitch with both his left and his right arm. A natural right-hander, by 1986 he could throw well enough with his left hand that he felt capable of pitching with either hand in a game. Harris wasn't allowed to throw left-handed in a regular-season game until September 28, 1995, the next-to-last game of his career. Against the Cincinnati Reds in the ninth inning, Harris (then a member of the Montreal Expos) retired Reggie Sanders pitching right-handed, then switched to his left hand for the next two hitters, Hal Morris and Ed Taubensee, who both batted left-handed. Harris walked Morris but got Taubensee to ground out. He then went back to his right hand to retire Bret Boone to end the inning. One Division I NCAA pitcher, Pat Venditte of the Creighton Bluejays, regularly pitches with both arms.

I was at that game, he used a glove with six fingers and as I recall, his first pitch thrown with his left hand went straight to the backstop.