The Brewers Have Seen a Crazily Low Number of Left-Handed Pitchers So Far

For MLB as a whole, it hasn't been an unusual season in terms of the percentage of pitching done by left-handed hurlers. For the last 30 years or so, the percentage of all plate appearances in which the pitcher was a southpaw has hovered in the mid- to high 20s, and this year, it's at 27.5%. In small segments of a full-season schedule, though, individual teams can experience extremes in this regard, and the Brewers have been at the far end of that spectrum.

In 16 games, the Crew have only taken 73 total plate appearances against lefties. Admittedly, they've played two fewer games than most of the league, but the median number of PAs against them for the rest of baseball is 201, and five teams have already seen them at least 250 times. The Brewers could see nothing but lefties for three whole games and barely get into the top half of the league in trips to the plate against portsiders.

This has implications for the development and involvement of many of the team's key pieces. It's probably helped Brice Turang and Sal Frelick get off to strong starts, and it's ensured plenty of playing time for Oliver Dunn and Jake Bauers. However, it's also made it harder for Pat Murphy to work Joey Ortiz into the mix as much as he would have liked to by now, and (since William Contreras views days off as affronts to his professional pride) it's rendered Gary Sánchez almost irrelevant.

Jackson Chourio's ugly stat line doesn't quite allow us to evaluate him on equal footing with other rookies, because only seven of his 66 plate appearances have come against lefties. The Brewers signed Rhys Hoskins this winter partially because he crushes left-handed pitching, but he's only faced a lefty five times all season. With their versatile and modular roster, the team has still been able to gain the platoon advantage at about an average rate during this stretch, but for guys like Chourio, Hoskins, Willy Adames, and William Contreras, the lack of chances to see lefties is distorting their numbers. (This parenthetical is my obligatory acknowledgment of the Brewers Hitters Reverse Split Phenomenon, which I think there's basically nothing to, but which I dare not totally dismiss or pretend not to have noticed. Yes, Adames is a better hitter against righties for his career, so he probably doesn't mind this long stretch of seeing them almost all the time. It might even be distorting his numbers in a positive way.)

This trend won't abate over the weekend. All three scheduled starters for the Cardinals are right-handed. They do have three lefties in their bullpen, though, so the Crew could finally get a handful of looks at lefties during a single series. Eventually, this will even out, and while that will be bad news for Turang and Frelick, it might be very good news for guys like Blake Perkins (a switch-hitter who's stronger from the right side) and Joey Wiemer, in addition to those players already discussed. The Brewers are built to withstand fluctuations like these, and Murphy has proved adroit in managing the roster. When things balance themselves and the team sees more lefties, they could well do even better than they've done over the first three weeks of the campaign.