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The “Lefty Strike” and its effect on Cavan Biggio
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Photo credit: Michael Dwyer / AP Photo
Paul Berthelot
Jul 5, 2019, 13:18 EDT
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It’s only been a short time in the majors but already Cavan Biggio has shown remarkable plate discipline. Among players with 130 plate appearances his outside zone swing percentage of 13.0% is the lowest in the league. This has helped fuel an elite 16.2% walk rate and a strong .370 on-base percentage. Biggio in just a short time has shown a great approach at the plate and phenomenal idea of the strike zone. This has led to a 124 wRC+.
These are impressive numbers and they could be even better if not for some missed called strikes. Biggio has taken 586 pitches for strikes this season. Of those, 32 have been deemed by baseball savant to be outside of the strike zone. 30 of those 32 pitches have been in zones 11 and 13, i.e. on the outside part of the plate or in the “lefty strike” zone. 
The lefty strike is a phenomenon that sees lefty batters take far more called strikes on the outside part of the plate than right handed batters. Mike Fast, of Baseball Prospectus and now of the Houston Astros was one of the first really dive into and research this. That was back in 2011 and this has not gone away since. It essentially derailed the career of Dustin Ackley who was never able to make the adjustment. With the Blue Jays this hasn’t been something at forefront recently as their big sluggers have predominantly been right handed. With the promotion of Biggio we are starting to see much more of the lefty strike and the effects it can have on a hitter.
Biggio has been called out on strikes four times on balls in the lefty strike area, and twice more has taken a strike in that area with three balls. That is six extra walks and four fewer strikeouts that Biggio should have. Those walks don’t seem like much, but it would boost his already robust walk rate to 20.5% and increase his OBP to .415 while reducing his strikeout rate from 26.5% to 23.5%. With the other at bats the call didn’t immediately affect the outcome of the plate appearance but anytime you give the pitcher an extra strike it hurts the batter.
This is something that right now hasn’t been a problem. Biggio is still clearly having success, drawing walks and getting good pitches to hit. However it can become a problem if pitchers realize they can get this call and Biggio doesn’t make this adjustment and start swinging at these pitches. This is what happened with Ackley. He was too passive and was taking a ton of called strikeouts and then completely changed his approach to a much more aggressive one and never had success.
With Biggio we are already seeing an adjustment. Here is Biggio taking a called third strike in just his seventh game.
And here he is fouling off a pitch right in that same area a couple weeks later.
Pitchers are trying to attack Biggio with pitches away. As this heatmap shows, there is a ton of blue in the inside part of the plate and lots of red towards the middle and outer third of the zone.  
 
Biggio is showing he can handle those pitches. Here is his strike zone broken down by batting average.
He is hitting very well on those pitches down the middle and is respectable on the outer third of the zone. These are the areas where Biggio likes to hit as he discussed with David Laurila of Fangraphs:  “I look for a heater in the middle thirds: middle-in, middle, and middle-away. Those are the parts of the strike zone where I can do the most damage.” Later on in the interview Biggio touched on his patient approach and in response to Laurila asking if he takes too many pitches: “I have in the past, but I’ve gotten better with that. I’ve gotten better at being selectively aggressive.”
Being selectively aggressive is something we have seen from Biggio. Of his six called strikeouts mentioned earlier they all came in Biggio’s first 18 games. So whether or not he is fouling those pitches off or swinging and missing one thing is certain Biggio is making sure to attack pitches in the lefty strike area and not giving pitchers easy strikeouts.  

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