Fangraphs has an interesting column about three teams in the A.L. Central having starting rotations consisting exclusively of right-handed pitchers. This is fairly unusual for any team, much less three in the same division. It's very possible all three teams with start a righty in every single game. The G's are the most likely to start a lefty with Allen and Pilkington, but they are competing with Gaddis, Curry, and eventually Morris, Bibee, and Williams.
Do five rights make a wrong? The Twins, Guardians, and White Sox are all about to find out.
blogs.fangraphs.com
Here are the most interesting takeaways:
Only Cleveland has much when it comes to left-handed depth. Minnesota’s lone southpaw starter on the 40-man is Brent Headrick, who’s 25 years old and hasn’t pitched above Double-A, where he had mixed results last season. He’s behind several names on the depth chart, so barring an unexpected breakout, he’s not in line for a big league call-up. The White Sox have even fewer left-handed options....
How often does that happen? It’s not terribly unusual for a single team to steer clear of southpaw starters in any given year; it’s happened seven times in the last ten full seasons and ten times in the last twenty....
Of Cleveland’s five primary starters, only Zach Plesac has poor career splits against left-handed batters...Minnesota’s rotation might have a little more trouble keeping left-handed batters at bay...
It’s another mixed bag in Chicago...Only no. 5 starter Michael Kopech has reverse platoon splits, and Dylan Cease and Lance Lynn — the two most important arms in the rotation — aren’t nearly as dominant without the platoon advantage...
To make matters worse for the White Sox, their offense thrived against left-handed pitching last year. Their 119 wRC+ against southpaws was the fourth-highest in baseball; their 93 wRC+ against righties was the eighth-worst. They weren’t quite as powerful against lefties in the second half, when Tim Anderson and Luis Robert Jr. went on the IL, but those two are back to hit atop the lineup. Replacing the righty AJ Pollock with the lefty Andrew Benintendi should help to balance out the offense, but he is the only left-handed mainstay in the batting order; Chicago’s lineup is built to face lefties. That’s going to be a problem in the 28 games this team plays against Cleveland and Minnesota...
The Guardians, meanwhile, were terrible against left-handed pitching last season, posting a 104 wRC+ against righties and an 84 wRC+ against southpaws. The addition of switch-hitting Josh Bell will help to even out those splits, but Cleveland is still lucky that its division rivals are so right-handed. Terry Francona can trot out a lineup featuring as many as seven lefties or switch-hitters when he wants to, and his left-handed options will only improve once top prospect Bo Naylor is promoted...
The Twins were fine against lefties last season (101 wRC+) but significantly better against righties (109 wRC+). The now departed Luis Arraez and Gio Urshela contributed to those splits, but Minnesota is still set up to beat right-handers. The addition of Joey Gallo, the healthy returns of Max Kepler and Alex Kirilloff, and the breakout of Trevor Larnach give this lineup four lefties who can pack a punch...
The AL Central race is going to be close this season. Fewer than three wins separate the White Sox, Twins, and Guardians in our projected standings. Thus, the division winner will be decided in large part by the 42 games these three clubs play against one another. That means the White Sox could be in real trouble if their lineup can’t perform against the righty-heavy rotations of their rivals. The Guardians, meanwhile, have a leg up with a lefty-heavy lineup to grind away at opposing starting pitchers.
Handedness is only a small part of the equation, but in such a tight race, every advantage (or disadvantage) counts. The righty-heavy rotations of the AL Central are an amusing quirk, but when all is said and done, they could also play a meaningful role in deciding the division.
www.mlbtraderumors.com
