Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Left in the Dark

A timely home run from Justin Morneau and a strong outing from Livan Hernandez prevented the Twins from another upsetting loss at the hands of a soft-tossing lefty last night. This time it was John Lannan stymieing the Twins bats for most of his seven innings of work.

The Twins' struggles against left-handed starters are well-documented, and the fact that the Twins struggled against the southpaw Lannan last night is not as disappointing as the reason they struggled against him. Here's what the Twins seven right-handed hitters in the lineup (including the switch-hitting Alexi Casilla) did against Lannan last night: 2-for-21 (.095) with two singles, a walk and three strikeouts. The only hitters who managed to do anything of consequence against Lannan were the two left-handed batters in the lineup, Joe Mauer (who went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double) and Justin Morneau (whose mammoth blast to right in the sixth inning scored Mauer and put the Twins in front).

Regardless of your feelings about Delmon Young, Craig Monroe and Michael Cuddyer, one thing is certain: these are guys who should be putting up numbers against lefties. The team's struggles against southpaws last year were a big part of the reason the team spent so much in players and money to bring in Young and Monroe, but the two have both failed miserably at this key task thus far. Young has hit .246/.295/.386 against lefties, while Monroe -- who has historically mashed southpaws -- has posted a miserable .106/.176/.106 line against them. That's ZERO extra-base hits in 51 plate appearances against left-handers for a guy who was basically brought in with the specific task of hitting them. Cuddyer, meanwhile, has hit .250/.350/.327 against lefties and has yet to hit a home run off one.

The funny thing is that Mauer and Morneau have both been surprisingly effective against left-handed pitching this year, so this team could actually be a force against southpaws if they were getting reasonably decent production from any of their middle-of-the-lineup right-handed bats. They're not, and it is extremely frustrating. The Twins may have won last night's game, but it still serves as a perfect example of a significant issue that is plaguing this team.

5 comments:

Corey Ettinger said...

Well, Richie Sexson is set to be released. Assuming he clears waivers he'll be available for the minimum. Not that the Twins would land him, but in his at-bats against lefties this year, he's still been a beast. Of course I think thats only over 49 at-bats, but all the same. He wouldn't hurt to at least look in to would he?

Anonymous said...

Sexson, as bad as he is, could not be worse than Monroe's line against LHP this year.

Nick N. said...

Sexson would be an improvement, but I think that -- for better or for worse -- the Twins are probably stuck with Monroe as their righty-hitting DH option this season.

Anonymous said...

While Monroe has really been struggling, its not clear Sexon would be any better than Monroe the rest of the year. His numbers against lefties the last couple years are comparable to Monroe's. And that isn't changed by looking at the results in 50 at bats for each of them this year. I think Sexson is done. Being patient with Monroe is far more likely to bring results.

Anonymous said...

One other thing people may want to pay attention to. Texas and Boston are the only two AL teams that have scored significantly more runs than the Twins. And Texas is the only team whose pitching and defense have given up significantly more runs. The Twins offense isn't a problem.