I am imploring you to start Colby Rasmus against left-handed pitching.
The Cardinals center fielder of the future once again was not in the starting lineup against a left-handed starting pitcher. This time, it was the mediocre, 47 year-old, Jamie Moyer with a 9-9 record.
Since the beginning of the season (not including last night), Rasmus has not started in 13 games against left-handed starters. His first non-start against a lefty was against Randy Wolf of the Brewers in April. However, he has been in the starting lineup in the two other games Wolf has pitched against the Redbirds this year and hit one of his 3 homers off lefties against Wolf.
Rasmus has sat the bench in two games against Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez, who is an abysmal 6-11 this season.
His most recent start against a left-handed pitcher was last Thursday against Clayton Kershaw. Rasmus doubled and walked off Kershaw, but Rasmus was not in the starting lineup for Kershaw's other start against the Cardinals in June.
In the 13 games Rasmus has not started against lefties, the Cardinals are a mere 7-6. Only three of those pitchers have winning records: the aforementioned Kershaw, Barry Zito, and Brett Cecil.
The other pitchers Rasmus has not faced because he has not been in the starting lineup: Oliver Perez, Cole Hamels, Paul Maholm, Nate Roberson, Wade LeBlanc, Dontrelle Willis, and Manny Parra.
The combined record of the 12 pitchers (because he sat against Wandy Rodriguez twice) in the 13 games is a sub-.500 65-75.
I cannot believe time and time again that Tony continues to sit Colby Rasmus against left-handers. The Cardinals are already short on big bats in the lineup with both Ryan Ludwick and David Freese on the DL.
Rasmus is third on the team in home runs with 16, which already tied his amount from last year.
Against righties: .283/.371/.548 with 13 homers, 62 hits, 34 RBI in 219 at-bats.
Against lefties: .258/.333/.453 with 3 homers, 8 RBI, 16 hits, in only 62 at-bats.
The numbers aren’t remarkably different. The slugging numbers are quite different but how do you expect Rasmus to raise the numbers when you continually sit him against left-handers that are clearly below average pitchers.
Rasmus is definitely our center fielder of the future and hopefully will be with the Redbirds for a long time. However, he is not going to learn to hit lefties from the bench.
Let me throw some numbers out there for another prominent left-handed bat.
Against righties: .322/.383/.569 with 13 homers, 50 RBI, 77 hits in 239 at-bats.
Against lefties: .256/.305/.481 with 8 homers, 24 RBI, 33 hits in 129 at-bats.
I would argue that these splits are much worse than Rasmus', but the biggest discrepancy between the two players' splits is in the number of at-bats. These are the splits for Phillies slugger Ryan Howard so far this year. The Phillies simply don't sit their All-Star 1st baseman against lefties.
Yes, Rasmus is not close to the player that Howard is, but I don't understand the philosophy of sitting a future star against lefties, when he will be the center fielder of the future as well as an All-Star in the near future. At some point, he will need to get at-bats against lefties in order to improve. How can he improve if he doesn't get a chance to hit?
Please Tony. Start Colby Rasmus against left-handed pitching.
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