Orioles Think Tank

A lot of people out there in Orioles land have reservations about this year's bullpen. Of particular cause for concern seems to be the apparent lack of any credible lefthanders, accented by the departure of last year's relief ace, B.J. Ryan, and top set-up man, Steve Kline. The point of all this worrying is that you're supposed to have a guy that can come in and mow down a tough left-handed hitter in a high leverage situation, right? So, let's take a look at how some of the players that project to have roles in this year's pen have fared against lop-sided batters. What follows are the 2005 batting lines (BA/OBP/SLG) of left-handed hitters against much of the projected O's bullpen, followed in parentheses by the 2005 batting lines of all hitters (both lefties and righties) against the same pitchers.

• LHP

John Parrish- 30 ABs, .200/.314/.333 (.279/.419/.382)

Eric DuBose- 48 ABs, .146/.241/.292 (.243/.356/.383)

Tim Byrdak- 56 ABs, .214/.323/.286 (.255/.380/.321)

Franklin Grascesqui- Not enough data

• RHP

Jim Brower- 47 ABs, .277/.358/.447 (.282/.387/.479)

LaTroy Hawkins- 101 ABs, .228/.295/.366 (.265/.336/.420)

Chris Ray- 67 ABs, .284/.347/.478 (.222/.306/.373)

Todd Williams- 114 ABs, .263/.312/.307 (.252/.317/.339)

Aaron Rakers- 22 ABs, .227/.308/.364 (.220/.255/.480)

Orber Moreno*- 70 ABs, .229/.295/.300 (.239/.308/.313)
*2003-2005 data used

Sendy Rleal, Eddy Rodriguez- Not enough data




One thing that should also be pointed out is that B.J. Ryan actually authored a slight reverse platoon advantage in 2005 (but he was mighty dominant against both sides) and Steve Kline did everything but live up to his billing as shut-down lefty specialist (.317/.364/.515 vs. LHB).

A few other things jump out at me. For one; Parrish, DuBose, and Byrdak may not have marquee names, but all were very effective in their limited duty against left-handers in 2005. Another is that every righty listed not named Chris Ray pitched at least as well against left-handers in 2005 as they did against right-handers. Some of this is due to the natural fluctuation in the distribution of hits against relief pitchers, since by definition you are dealing with small sample sizes. In other instances, such as in LaTroy Hawkins' case, the reverse platoon advantage holds true over the larger 2003-2005 sample size as well. In fact, looking at Hawkins' and Kline's relative effectiveness against lefties last year, I am once again stuck scratching my head as to what the Giants were thinking with that trade.

Ultimately, two things can be drawn from this. One, don't get in a huff about whether or not a team has enough situational relievers. I mean, have you checked out the Angels bullpen recently? They had 27.7 innings pitched in relief by left-handers in all of 2005 and finished the year with a bullpen ERA of 3.52. The fact that almost every right-hander projected into the Orioles bullpen in 2006 shows no significant decrease in effectiveness against left-handed batters only reiterates how silly an overemphasis on handedness can be. Secondly, if you still don't buy into the first argument, then you can at least take solace in the fact that the lefties the O's do have performed pretty fairly against their own kind.

So let's hope the O's don't go out and address their need for a veteran LOOGY by throwing millions, or worse- prospects, at the first guy they see throwing with the wrong hand.