Lefty Strike

[PonyUmpire]

Hey guys. I'm sure you are all familiar with the idea of the lefty strike (that umpires will tend to call strikes on lefties that are well outside). What are your thoughts on this? Why do you think it occurs?

[umpstu]

Have never heard of the lefty strike.

[guyinaredhat]

Not with me , if anything  with a RH pitcher i tend to squeeze the outside on a lefty and call the inside pitch on a lefty, and the outside pitch on a righty.   Righties get the right side of the plate and lefties get the left.  

[carolinablue]

Maybe because there is a natural tail on their fastball so a pitch may catch the front edge and continue to tail away into the mitt. They are judging the catcher and not where it crossed. Personally, I have never heard that.

[scrounge]

I've never heard of it either, but to the extent that it exists, probably just due to a lack of repetitions on that side since the large majority of pitchers are righties.

[PonyUmpire]

Pitchf/x data shows that MLB umpires definitely call a significantly wider strike zone (on the outside edge) for lefties.

[Thunderheads]

James Hoye told us in his classroom session at SEMUC that the outside corner on a lefty batter is the most difficult for him..... Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

[noumpere]

Hey guys. I'm sure you are all familiar with the idea of the lefty strike

I'm sure your wrong about what we're sure of.

 

To the extent it seems to be  true, it might be tha camera angle.

 

To the extent it is true, it probably has to do with the right eye dominance that most people have.

[mstaylor]

My uncomfortable feeling with seeing the outside corner was a large reason I started scissoring. I found it was much easier on my body and I got hit less, both pluses. 

[IABlue]

It obviously has to do with the fact that most umpires feel much more uncomfortable when calling balls and stikes on a lefthanded hitter versus a righty, due to lack of repetitions/looks from that position.