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Mickey Mantle 1957 Batting Splits

I love baseball-reference.com. Did you know that when Mickey hit for his highest batting average of .365 in 1957, be batted .421 right-handed?

The baseball nerds have not yet assembled the splits for 1951-56, but from 1957-68, Mickey hit FIFTY FOUR points higher batting righty, .329 versus .275. He also hit more doubles and triples batting right-handed, but he hit more homers batting lefty (one every 13-14 at bats, versus one every 16-17 batting righty), so his RBI frequency worked out exactly the same both ways - one every 5.52 at bats.

Mickey's sharpest split is in the GIDP category. One every 31 at bats batting right handed (not so good), but only one every 91 at bats batting lefty, despite his all-out swing from the heels. "A young Mantle batting lefty" used to be my stock answer for "hardest to double up" (Mantle grounded into one DP in 152 lefty at bats in 1957), but Ichiro is now clearly the master. He's just as fast as Mantle, and has the kind of swing where he's dashing out of the box as he makes contact. He grounded into only two double plays last year in 695 at bats!