Team Handedness
Posted by ubelmann on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Some facts:
.284/.344/.419 -- MN vs. RHP, 10th best OPS in baseball
.266/.332/.413 -- AL vs. RHP
.262/.334/.404 -- AL vs. LHP
.261/.309/.375 -- MN vs. LHP, 28th best OPS in baseball
This might lead one to believe that the Twins have a ton of left-handed hitters on the team, making them especially susceptible to left-handed pitching, but that's not the case:
1731 PA as RHB (through 87 games)
1603 PA as LHB (through 87 games)
Though Mauer has been (unsustainably) good against LHP so far (.366/.413/.524 -- having already faced a left-handed pitcher in 45 games), Morneau has been nothing to write home about (.274/.305/.425), and Kubel has probably been about as unlucky vs. LHP as Mauer has been lucky (hitting just .157/.254/.235).
Many have pointed to Craig Monroe's numbers vs. LHP so far this season (which have improved of late and will likely continue to improve), but the team's right-handed hitters in general have been pretty poor against left-handed pitching. As one can see above, the average OPS against left-handed pitchers in the AL is .738. Only two regulars have an OPS better than .738 against left-handed pitchers--Joe Mauer (.937) and Carlos Gomez (.739). Morneau and Casilla have been just barely below average (.736 and .730, respectively), but Redmond, Young, Cuddyer, Monroe, and Harris have all struggled against LHP. (Harris even has a lower OPS vs. LHP than Monroe does at this point.)
It could be a sample size thing where the Twins have, as a whole, faced better than average left-handed pitching, or it could just be something of a fluke, but given their handedness (and the lack of a history of freak platoon splits), I would expect the Twins' performance against LHP to improve relative to their performance against RHP as the season wears on.
Loading ...
About a month ago I noted Monroe's odd splits vs. lefties, because they were so out of line with his historical performace. They have improved, and I'm sure they'll continue to improve, but it was one of those little anomolies you run into from time to time that really stick out.