Who Needs Lefties, Part Two

In my last post, I looked at teams that used only two lefthanded pitchers in a season. In response to a comment on that post, I figured it would be worthwhile to look at teams that didn't use any lefties. If you go back to the early days of professional baseball, it would be easier to list teams that did use a lefty - the 1876 NL had no confirmed lefthanders (three clubs had pitchers of unknown handedness). Teams remained lefty-averse (or at least didn't employ memorably-handed hurlers) through the early 1890s.

Only four teams since 1900 have gone through an entire season without a single lefthander:

• 1901 Boston Beaneaters (69-69) - used five pitchers in 140 games.
• 1903 New York Giants (84-55) - used seven pitchers in 142 games.
• 1918 Philadelphia Phillies (55-68) - used eleven pitchers in 125 games.
  
• 1934 Chicago White Sox (53-99) - used fourteen pitchers in 153 games.

But does it really matter how many lefties you have if you never use them anyway? Here are the teams since 1954 with the fewest batters faced by lefthanders:

• 1974 Montreal Expos (79-82) - 81 BF by Balor Moore and Terry Enyart
• 2006 Arizona Diamondbacks (76-86) - 113 BF by Randy Choate, Doug Slaten, and Terry Mulholland
• 2000 Kansas City Royals (77-85) - 240 BF by Jose Rosado, Scott Mullen, Paul Spoljaric, and Tim Byrdak
• 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers (81-81) - 275 BF by Omar Daal and Steve Wilson
• 1983 Toronto Blue Jays (89-73) - 276 BF by Dave Geisel and Stan Clarke
• 1954 Baltimore Orioles (54-100) - 287 BF by Bob Kuzava, Billy O'Dell, Dave Koslo, Dick Littlefield, and Jay Heard
• 2001 Milwaukee Brewers (68-94) - 287 BF by Ray King, Lance Painter, and Valerio de los Santos
• 1957 Boston Red Sox (82-72) - 294 BF by Dean Stone, Frank Baumann, and Jack Spring
• 1996 Chicago Cubs (76-86) - 320 BF by Bob Patterson and Larry Casian
• 2000 Houston Astros (72-90) - 343 BF by Billy Wagner, Yorkis Perez, and Wayne Franklin
• 1996 New York Mets (71-91) - 350 BF by John Franco, Bob MacDonald, and Pedro Martinez

Note: the 1994 Los Angeles Dodgers (206 BF), 1994 Oakland Athletics (314 BF), 1981 Cincinnati Reds (344 BF), and 1994 Cleveland Indians (346 PA) played in strike-shortened seasons.

With six games left to play, the 2009 Cardinals duo of Trever Miller and Dennys Reyes has faced a combined 335 batters.

This year's Cardinals and a couple other teams above spoil my ending a bit, but it sure looks to me like the answer to "Who needs lefties?" is "winning teams."