FanPost

How the Outfield should be configured


In an attempt to continue to drum up more playing time for Tony Campana, I took a look at the RHP/LHP splits for the outfielders this year.  In previous postings, I've mentioned how against RHP, Campana has had an OBP around .350 and its his LHP splits that have driven down his season numbers.  To expand upon that a bit, and bring in the rest of the OF'ers:

I'm going to go with the assertion first that Colvin should be playing as many games as possible.  I think many people here have stated that with good cause as we should see whether he can rebound closer to his 2010 numbers.  So put him down for one of the spots against RHP AND LHP.

Campana has a .341/.383/.724 line against RHP - his line against LHP is horrible, so start him against all RHP.

Soriano's line against RHP this year is .265/.428/.693 - that's right LESS than Campana's.  However, Fonzie's line against LHP is a very solid .341/.563/.904.  He would starts against lefties. 

Byrd's splits are better against RHP than LHP, .372/.449/.821 vs .275/.431/.706 - he should be starting against RHP and sitting against LHP.

Johnson's splits are almost identical (and excellent) - .358/.542/.900 vs RHP, .379/.516/.895 against LHP.

Against RHP, should-be non-outfielder Blake DeWitt has a .276/.399/.675 slash against RHP, but decent against LHP .370/.423/.793 - though he should never see the outfield grass again in my opinion.

So against RHP - the outfield should be:  LF - Campana, CF - Byrd, RF - Colvin

Against LHP - LF - Soriano, CF - Johnson, RF - Colvin

Campana's GAME-CHANGING speed, and good numbers against RHP really demand that he start against all RHP the remainder of the year.

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