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This article is from the Lefthanders FAQ, by Barry D. Benowitz b.benowitz@telesciences.com with numerous contributions by others.
19. In baseball, what makes left-handed pitchers so successful?
There are three factors here. First, left-handed pitchers
stand on the mound facing first base, making it much easier to
spot base-stealing attempts, and to throw out the runner. Secondly,
the throwing arm of a lefty pitcher is more hidden from view of a
righty batter, making it difficult for the batter to gauge the pitch
as it's being thrown. Finally, lefties naturally tend to throw the
ball towards the left side of the plate (from the batter's
perspective), placing the pitch inside for a righty batter (which is
more difficult to hit).
Ironically, the perceived success of LH pitchers is primarily
due to their inherent advantages over the LH hitters that the
other teams put in their lineups to hit off the RH pitchers!
Often, managers will bring in a pitcher to face just one
hitter (LH-on-LH or RH-on-RH matchup), because of which
hitters are coming up soon, or even to try to force the
opposing manager to pinch hit to get HIS favorable matchup (the
hitting team gets to make the last change), but taking a good
hitter out of the game to do it.
Thanks to: George Feil <george@schwing.hip.berkeley.edu>
John Mianowski <jmianows@ix.netcom.com>
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