Giants Pitching Absolutely Dominates Left-Handed Hitters

For the past few years now, the Giants pitching has been quite competent against left-handed hitters -- to say the least. Last year, they ranked seventh overall in the majors with a 3.89 FIP -- and the 2009 staff was even more adept against LHH, posting a 3.59 FIP that ranked second-best in the majors.

This year, however, they've taken that dominance to a whole new level. It's absurd, really, what they've been doing to left-handed hitters. Of the 1121 left-handed hitters that they've faced, just tenhave hit home runs.

The Giants are that tiny column all the way on the left. (Click to enlarge)

It goes beyond that, even.

The Giants currently carry a team FIP of 2.79 against left-handed hitters, exactly 0.40 points lower than the next-best FIP split.

Click to enlarge

They've been striking them out at a rate of 8.11 hitters per nine innings pitched, and they've kept walks to a minimum (3.25 per nine innings).

The best part, though, is that there doesn't appear to be a single weak link on the staff in this aspect.

Here are the LH-splits of all Giants pitchers who have faced 10+ innings-worth of left-handed hitters:

The top four on the list probably don't come as a surprise, as they're all southpaws; but one thing to take notice of -- Jonathan Sanchez has improved considerably against left-handed hitters (at least, so far this season; granted, small sample size caution must be applied). Sanchez has posted an FIP of 3.59 against same-handed hitters throughout his career, and last year, it sat at a rather unimpressive 4.75 mark. This year, however, it's all the way down to 2.42.

Anyway, this is astonishing pitching dominance. Seemingly unprecedented. I'd be curious to see how many previous major-league teams have been able to keep left-handed hitters at bay as the Giants have so far in 2011.