Was there a team in baseball with more dramatic platoon splits up and down the lineup in 2003 than Tony LaRussa’s Cardinals? I doubt it. You’d be sorely tempted to throw nothing but lefthanders against the Redbirds if you saw these splits:
| Avg vs RHP | Slg vs RHP | OBP vs RHP | PLAYER | Avg vs LHP | Slg vs LHP | OBP vs LHP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .292 | .631 | .405 | Jim Edmonds | .225 | .577 | .320 |
| .306 | .534 | .390 | JD Drew | .218 | .418 | .306 |
| .281 | .446 | .358 | Tino Martinez | .235 | .346 | .323 |
| .271 | .414 | .326 | Fernando Vina | .163 | .245 | .236 |
| .290 | .378 | .358 | Orlando Palmeiro | .182 | .200 | .224 |
But then, you’d want to re-consider when you look at the other side of the ledger:
| Avg vs RHP | Slg vs RHP | OBP vs RHP | PLAYER | Avg vs LHP | Slg vs LHP | OBP vs LHP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .350 | .646 | .434 | Albert Pujols | .387 | .732 | .458 |
| .316 | .434 | .364 | Edgar Renteria | .391 | .670 | .503 |
| .287 | .516 | .370 | Scott Rolen | .283 | .575 | .427 |
| .226 | .320 | .302 | Mike Matheny | .340 | .480 | .384 |
| .238 | .351 | .295 | Eduardo Perez | .353 | .667 | .459 |
| .267 | .379 | .306 | Bo Hart | .300 | .433 | .344 |
If the Cards think they are ‘solving’ a problem with lefthanded pitching by dumping Drew and Tino, they may be mistaken; those guys were actually doing a good job of inducing teams to throw lefthanders at the rest of the lineup. It’s harder to project what this means going forward, since some of these splits (e.g., Renteria and Matheny) are unlikely to remain as dramatic in the future.