I’m puzzled by platooning players early in their careers; they really haven’t had a chance to show if they can hit lefties and/or righties well.
Now, you can say that you can see the trends in the minors. While that’s true, they also play a lower level of competition. I think you can start to identify trends, but you can’t really label a platoon player until they get some MLB time.
My reason for writing this is Colby Rasmus; last year, Tony LaRussa held him out of the line up often when a lefty starter was on the mound. I can’t really find a justification for this based of his minor league splits:
| Minor Career | AVG/OBP/SLG | AB | TB | BB | RC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | .275/.371/.455 | 422 | 192 | 52 | 68 |
| vs RHP | .278/.364/.496 | 1147 | 569 | 152 | 206 |
| Total | .277/.366/.485 | 1569 | 761 | 204 | 274 |
His splits aren’t that bad vs lefties. You’ll notice he got on base better against lefties than righties, but had more power against the righties.
If you adjusted them for the same amount of at bats he had against righties, they are pretty close:
| Minor Career | AVG/OBP/SLG | AB | TB | BB | RC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | .275/.354/.455 | 1147 | 522 | 141 | 185 |
Here, the OBP drops, but his average and slugging are the same. He sees small declines in numbers, but they are pretty close over all.
In 2009 (his rookie season), Rasmus sat against a lot of lefties. Here are his splits:
| 2009 | AVG/OBP/SLG | AB | TB | BB | RC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | .160/.219/.255 | 106 | 27 | 6 | 5 |
| vs RHP | .277/.332/.451 | 368 | 166 | 30 | 55 |
| Total | .251/.318/.418 | 474 | 193 | 36 | 58 |
Notice the large difference. I think this is partially because he wasn’t given an opportunity to develop against major league lefties. B.J. Rains of the St. Louis Globe Democrat spoke to Rasmus about his struggles against lefties last year:
“I think last year with all of the stuff that was going on and everybody talking about the lefties and things like that, I would get up there and get that one chance and want to hit one 500 feet instead of relaxing and just getting up there and playing the game like I know how,” Rasmus said. “It made it tough last year because I had never really struggled against lefties a whole lot in the minor leagues and didn’t think I would struggle in the big leagues.
“When I was up there hitting against them, I didn’t feel over-matched or anything. I just didn’t come down with some hits. This year, (I need to) just get up there and relax and don’t try to do too much with one at-bat.”
2010, while a very small sample size, hasn’t gotten better:
| 2010 | AVG/OBP/SLG | AB | TB | BB | RC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | .000/.000/.000 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| vs RHP | .286/.459/.679 | 28 | 19 | 9 | 9 |
| Total | .216/.370/.514 | 37 | 19 | 9 | 7 |
He’s only had 9 plate appearances against lefties this season, sitting out against 1 of the 3 lefty starters the team has faced:
| Date | Pitcher | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04/05 | Daniel Herrera | Reds | K (0-1) |
| 04/07 | Arthur Rhodes | Reds | Sac (0-1) |
| 04/09 | Chris Narveson | Brewers | K (0-2) |
| 04/10 | Manny Parra | Brewers | K (0-3) |
| 04/11 | Randy Wolf | Brewers | DNP |
| 04/12 | Wandy Rodriguez | Astros | Reach on E (0-4) |
| 04/12 | Wandy Rodriguez | Astros | GO to 1B (0-5) |
| 04/14 | Tim Byrdak | Astros | FO to RF (0-6) |
| 04/12 | Johan Santana | Mets | K (0-7) |
| 04/12 | Johan Santana | Mets | K (0-8) |
| 04/12 | Johan Santana | Mets | FO to LF (0-9) |
The fact that he’s made 2 of the 3 starts against a lefty is encouraging. Putting up an 0 against Johan Santana isn’t out of the ordinary for a lot of hitters. Plus, there isn’t a TLR favorite, like Rick Ankiel, stealing at bats from Rasmus. Ankiel seemed to start more against lefties, even though his platoon splits are around the same level as Rasmus. Rasmus was also a better fielding CF than Ankiel (Ankiel did have a better arm, though). I’d consider Rasmus an elite centerfielder when Ankiel was slightly below average. You have to remember Ankiel is still fairly new to the outfield while Rasmus has been there for years.
At this point, I think the only way Rasmus can improve against lefties is to face them more often. He needs to adjust, plain and simple. Rasmus has always started slow with the promotion to the next level; I think that would apply to hitting lefties.
