Bryan Lahair has a 200 OPS point difference in his minors career between LH and RH pitching (luck included). He CAN'T hit lefties. And it approaches 400 points of difference in his last 3 seasons. At AA and above vs the LH side he's abominable. Utterly worthless against any moderately competent lefty.
Mike's minor league splits, neutralized for luck, are 66 OPS points apart. He has a .40 batting eye against lefties and a .50 against righties. He was basically even in the low minors. But if you look at the last couple of years, when he's been facing lefties with nastier breaking and offspeed stuff (something lacking in the low minors), it shifts dramatically to a .30 eye vs LH and 200+ OPS points difference.
Nothing in that says the LH side can't catch up to a large degree. He's had 250 extra ABs against righties and is slamming the ball now when he gets a hold of a pitch from one. He's never shown himself to be the awful platoon-only bat that guys like Lahair are, he just hasn't SEEN enough good lefty pitching to adjust yet.
But it'll be a year and a half before he sees enough lefties to be where he is right now against righties.
So you hope his righty-crushing ways can make him valuable enough for him to see a year and a half of lefties and find out if he can improve. I think he absolutely can get better.
~G
Add new comment
1