Lefties in the NL Central

Tonight the Bucs are scheduled to face Randy Wolf, a left-hander. The Bucs won't see many lefthanded pitchers this year: the NL Central is shockingly low on southpaws.

Houston (11 pitchers): Andy Pettitte
St. Louis (12): Ray King, Steve Kline
Chicago (12): Kent Mercker, Andy Pratt
Cincinnati (12): Phil Norton
Milwaukee (12): Doug Davis, Chris Capuano
Pittsburgh (12): Oliver Perez, John Grabow, Mike Johnston

The Bucs will only face two left-handed starters in NL Central games. Given Mac's preference to play the handedness angle, Simon might not start tonight. J.J. Davis could start in right with Wilson at first and Castillo at second. Wilson should hit cleanup tonight. (Redman - Kendall - Mondesi - Wilson - Davis - Stynes - Wilson - Castillo?) There won't be many lefties on the schedule so it's not like there will be many more opportunities to play J.J. Davis by sitting Simon for reasons that have little to do with Simon's recent performance at the plate. (But he did draw a walk last night so maybe Mac will feel compelled to keep that hot streak going.)

Last year the Reds ran out Jimmy Anderson for the third game of the season and Mac started Rob Mackowiak (a left-hander) in center. (Man I hope we see Jimmy in a Cubs uniform this season. I will neither confirm nor deny that my dog is chewing on a Kerry Wood voodoo doll as I type this.) Rob Mac went 3 for 5 against Jimmy last year. He had 80% of his at-bats against right-handed pitchers in 2003 so it's not like Mac regards him as a lefty-masher. Stynes is a right-handed hitter who has always hit lefties a lot better than righties (807 OPS vs. L over last three years; 691 OPS vs. R). Stynes over Rob Mac for sure then. There isn't enough data on Tike Redman's career as a left-handed hitter to know if his performance against lefties has been weak enough to justify benching him against Wolf.

None of the current Bucs have more than 9 plate appearances against Wolf. Hopefully Mac will not regard Jason Kendall's 1 for 8 record as significant enough to bench him, because a record in eight at-bats is close to meaningless. The Pirates might as well pinch-hit with Oliver Perez since he's gone 3 for 3 against Wolf.