The first two pitchers we faced in the series, Lynn and Miller, are righties with very pronounced platoon splits. For his career Lynn has given up an OPS of .797 against lefties and .625 against righties. For Miller the numbers are .765 and .604.
Those numbers cry out for an extra lefty bat in the lineup. Whether it be Pena at second or Doumit/Schafer for one of the Uptons. For whatever reason Fredi decided to forego that option.
The third starter we face is Jaime Garcia, a lefty with neutral splits. For his career he has given up a .698 OPS against righties and .696 against lefties.
Now things get interesting. Suddenly Fredi brings in Schafer into the lineup. Schafer has never faced Garcia before. Schafer hits righties much better than lefties. Maybe there are injury issues or other issues involved that I am not aware of, but imo playing Schafer against Garcia while sitting him against Lynn and Miller is beyond the pale.
There are a couple additional questionable choices from Fredi in this series. Gattis hits lefties better. So why is he sitting against Garcia? In the upcoming series the Brewers are throwing three righties against us. Rest him against those guys, rest him against Lynn or Miller. But don't rest him against the one lefty we are facing in this stretch.
There is also the decision to insert Uggla into the lineup. This one on the surface has some justification. He holds a .917 career OPS against Garcia in 10 at bats. Not bad. But lets look a little deeper. Those at bats came from 2010 to 2012 when Uggla was a better hitter. Also for his career Uggla has a reverse split. But for some reason Fredi is choosing to give him a game here and there against lefties (Bumgarner and Garcia are his last two starts I believe). Btw Uggla has a terrible record against Bumgarner. I think I know the reason for Fredi playing Uggla against a couple lefties. His one good game this season involved some success against a couple lefties in Philadelphia. Talk about small sample size idiocy.
I am actually not in favor of burying Uggla. I would give him the odd game against pitchers he has had some success against. I would have played him against Vogelsong. I would give him a game against Milwaukee in the upcoming series since he has had some success against the starters they will be pitching against us.
But I would not be focusing on lefties as the pitchers to get Uggla a game. Pastornicky should be the guy going against lefties. He has a conventional career split. He's had some success against Garcia in a small sample. Maybe Uggla will have a huge game against Garcia. I will be rooting for him. But a priori this is another of a series of decisions in this series where Fredi has not made the optimal lineup choice.
To me these are the kind of details where a good manager can ean the team a little bit of an advantage on a day-in-day-out basis. They are worth doing right whether the team is struggling or on a winning streak.
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