Right Hand Dominant

[FVBrewerFan]

I'm sure this was addressed before, sprinkled throughout other threads. When I look at the roster, the #1 thing that jumps out at me is the lack of Lefties on the mound and at the plate. Only ONE LH in the projected starting line-up. Very little coming off the bench. Possibly no LH starting pitcher- of course Parra and Cappy will be in the mix. Moving to the bully, not much there beyond Shouse.

 

My question is, how big of an issue is this? On the surface, it seems like it's a pretty substantial problem. Any opposing team can manipulate their rotation a bit to avoid starting Lefties against us right? Any team that has a better than average LH line-up should rake our staff right? This will keep me up at night unless someone can say something to make it all better.

[Ennder]

Teams don't generally shift around their rotation just to force matchups unless it is a pennant race. The Cubs lefties are better than their righties so that is a plus. We do have Gross, Gwynn, Munson and Counsell as possible bench guys and they are all lefty. Capuano and Parra could easily both be in the rotation by the second half of the season and Stetter could be in the bullpen to go with Shouse.

 

It would be nice to have another lefty in the lineup but I doubt it is a major issue.

[rluzinski]

I don't think it's a very big deal. It's better to have a good RH hitter than a mediocre LH one.

[giffted1]

I don't think its a big deal since some of our right-handed hitters like Hart, Braun, and Cameron hit righties pretty well. If our lineup was filled with righties who should be in a platoon, then I'd be worried.

[valpocrewsader]

>> Very little coming off the bench.

 

Won't most of our bench be LH? Gross, Gwynn, Counsell, and likely Munson.

[DrWood]

they have a name for RH hitters that should be in a platoon--"minor league players". That said, the RH hitters that will be in the lineup vs. RH pitchers won't be dreadful, but there is a very big difference in the quality of the lineup vs. the different-armed pitchers. IIRC, the OPS vs. LH last year was .860 and vs. RH was .755, and the difference should be larger this year, as Jenkins is gone, and Cameron is in. Simply, against RH pitchers, the lineup won't be special at all.

 

Matt Stairs, where are you when we need you? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Ennder]

Jenkins put up a .326 OBP and .807 OPS vs righties last year. Cameron put up a .353 OBP and .845 OPS vs righties as recently as 2006. Last year was an off year whether that was age related decline or not is yet to be seen.

 

I also doubt Braun has quite the same insane splits as last year which probably brings down the vs lefty a lot more than it brings up vs righties unfortunately.

 

I think it will be an issue, just not a disasterous one.

[southpaw121505]

I like that our guys likely to see the most regular time - Weeks, Braun, Fielder, Hart - are solid batting against righties and lefties. I think occassional spot starts by Gross/Gwynn/Counsell for Hall/Cameron/Hardy should help out against righties some.

 

Gross has shown the ability to get hot in the past and he can get more starts against righties when he is in on of those streaks. Gross and Gwynn should get every opportunity in the first month to show they deserve more starts later. Ideally, Gwynn will show an ability to at least get on base at a good rate against righties and can earn some of those starts against tough righties later in the year if Cameron struggles against rhp. That way the defense shouldn't miss much and you still have Gross' bat on the bench.

 

I know giving Counsell a lot of ABs is not ideal, but at least this year when he does get his starts it doesn't have to result in taking Braun's bat out of the line-up. To sum up my rambling, I like how our bench compliments our starters. Counsell/Gwynn/Gross should only start against righties, and still provide solid defense. Cameron, Hall and Hardy really should only sit against righties.

[reillymcshane]

Our starting lineups in 2007 vs right handed pitchers

 

Hall - .713 OPS

Kendall - .641

Camerson - .700

Braun - .845

Hart - .824

Hardy - .729

Weeks - .787

Fielder - 1.100

 

Outside of Fielder, it is nothing great. We need to have improvement from the young players (Hardy) and see some vets rebound (Hall, Cameron, Kendall). Hart, Braun and Weeks did fine, but it would be good to see them even more so step up. There is hope. I think it only underscores how important Fielder is to the lineup. He'll walk a lot this year.

 

Jenks wasn't anything great - .807 OPS last year - but we have to hope Cameron can rebound and hit righties better than last season.

 

This lineupwill crush lefties.

[pogokat]

I think everyone is forgetting that part of the reason the RH stats are so low from last year is because kevin mench batted 132 times against righties for a whopping OPS of .564, damian miller had 135 ab's with an ops of .641,

 

while not a giant amount of ab's, the two worst hitters against righties on the roster are gone (not to mention counsell had 231 ab's against righties last year, and with hall at 3rd full time and dillon on the roster, he shouldn't bat that much next year...

 

so that's 350- 400 awful ab's against righties that should be by a better hitter this year...that's good for at least something!

[Ennder]

Graffy gave us 157 PA's of .733 OBP against righties too.

 

Hall's career OPS against righties is .771(.834 vs lefties). Cameron's is .767(.847 vs lefties). So there are some reasons to hope for better.

 

We still will probably be an average offense vs righties at best though.

[crewcrazy]

I agree with Russ that I'd rather have a good righty than a below average lefty who's in the lineup just for the sake of having more than one lefty. Just put your best players on the field and you'll be fine...the Brewers were pretty good last year with only 1.5-2 lefties in the lineup for most of the year. Jenkins was about average, while Estrada hit only .263/.285/.390 against righties. Counsell was .234/.337/.316 against RHP, and he'll be back this year. I don't think the Brewers are losing that much by having Prince as the only lefty...if anything, you're making it easier for LaRussa to use his LOOGY.

[FVBrewerFan]

Thanks for the comments. After reading through all the posts carefully, I believe I was concerned for a good reason. It tells me you almost have to bat Braun behind Fielder, or he'll be walked 3 times a night. Also, I didn't mean to imply opposing teams would disrupt their rotation to avoid starting lefties. However, we all know over the curse of a 162 game season there are a number of opportunities to tinker with the rotation with off days, All Star break, rain-outs and the like. That's maybe 10 times a year an opposing manager can decide to start a lefty the day before the Brewers series, or hold him until the day after.

 

Melvin isn't stupid, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's trying to swing a trade. Billy Hall and one of the starters (Bush, Vargas, Cappy) for a solid LH bat. At least that's what helps me sleep at night.