Davis: A left handed compliment?

by clark on Jun 26, 2008 2:47 PM CDT

Chris Davis is here. This is a legitimate cause for excitement for Rangers fans. He, along with Ramirez, Hurley, Salty, Feldman, Mendoza, Murphy, Boggs, etc., give fans hope that a young core is starting to come together for the Rangers, a core that could usher in a new and far more successful era of baseball for this franchise.

But I am concerned about adding another left-handed hitter to the middle of this lineup. Our record against LHP this year is 8-15. Over a whole season that would project out to 16 wins and 30 or 31 losses. For a decidedly .500 team, that is a pretty significant split. Our line against lefties this year is .256/.331/.420, whereas against righties it is .287/.355/.468. That results in OPS of .751 vs .823, a difference of .072.

Complicating matters is the fact that our best hitter this year against lefties has been Milton Bradley, a player having a career year who we will be hard pressed to keep around beyond this year. Of the new guys, Max has historically hit lefties well, but Davis' splits, as expected, show he is better against RHP (although the splits are not grotesque).

The statistics listed above have to be taken at face value, because I do not have the time, tools, or technical know how to dive any deeper. But I am concerned that until we are able to have sustainable success against LHP, it will be difficult for the Rangers to make the jump into the upper echelon of teams.

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Lefties against Wandy Rodriguez

Hitting him at a 267 avg whereas righties are hitting him at a 226 avg. since 2005, lefties have done pretty well against wandy, hitting either close to what righties hit against him, or better, the largest discrepancy being 2006 where lefties hit 262 and righties hit 298. Davis has not done badly against lefthanded pitching, and i can definitely see the rangers having success with their lefty centered lineup against wandy tonight. Overall, the davis move was for the success of the lineup, and just because he is left handed, it shouldn’t take away from the fact that he can only enhance this lineup.

baseBALLIN!

by kevzta on Jun 26, 2008 2:57 PM CDT 0 recs

Wandy

He’s weird. He’s also a lot better at home than on the road, which is crazy for a lefty in that ballpark. I chalk it up to inconsistency.

"You’re the only here who contributes schtick only." - brettgardner

by trza on Jun 26, 2008 6:26 PM CDT up 0 recs

Inconsistency

So would Joe Morgan.

by TRanger on Jun 26, 2008 6:55 PM CDT up 0 recs

2 reasons I don't worry about a lefty heavy lineup.

According to your projections, we will face RH starters 116 times and southpaws only 46.

Also, while I don’t have it right in front of me, I remember the Bill James abstract had normalized OPS for RH and LH batters for each ballpark. RBiA had a RH OPS+ of about 98 and a LH of about 120 or so.

So if we have a lineup that excels against the majority of pitchers and in our home ballpark, that doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.

Pedro: "I wasn't cockfighting, I just have a wide stance."

by tricer on Jun 26, 2008 3:50 PM CDT 0 recs

agreed

I was thinking about the same thing yuesterday.

Id rather dmoinate righties and scratch it out against lefties than be equally good but not great against both.

Would be nice to have a couple good RH bench bats though.

Bring up Chris Davis

by DSheppard on Jun 26, 2008 5:34 PM CDT up 0 recs

Yeah...

but it sure seems like this team has faced a lot more lefties this year than in the past. Probably not, but it seems taht way to me anyway.

Obviously you will see many more RH pitchers than LH. However my concern will be WHEN the Rangers compete next year and have a shot at the playoffs in ‘09 and ‘10 they could be shut down in a series by a team throwing lefties at them. I still feel like this team really needs to add a RH bat or 2 (if Board Game is not around after this year) to break up all the lefties and have a better chance at success in the long run.

"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates

by slc ranger on Jun 27, 2008 12:18 AM CDT up 0 recs