It has come to my attention that the Oakland A’s have a bullpen problem. It’s possible that you’ve noticed the same thing. In particular, they’re short on left-handed pitchers, as Sean Doolittle and Eric O’Flaherty are both on the disabled list. Therefore, Fernando Abad has been called on to be the lefty specialist, and that is a particularly unfortunate thing. Here are Abad’s platoon splits from the last couple years:
Abad 2013, vs. LHH: 65 PAs, .790 OPS, 2 HR
Abad 2013, vs. RHH: 101 PAs, .619 OPS, 1 HR
Abad 2014, vs. LHH: 100 PAs, .527 OPS, 1 HR
Abad 2014, vs. RHH: 116 PAs, .475 OPS, 3 HR
Abad 2015, vs. LHH: 32 PAs, 1.338 OPS, 4 HR
Abad 2015, vs. RHH: 16 PAs, .550 OPS, 0 HR
(Note: 2015 stats do not include Saturday’s game.)
Abad isn’t necessarily bad against lefties, but he’s been better against righties ever since he became a good pitcher in general. He’s really best suited to pitch a full inning a time, but the one thing that there’s no reason to do is reserve him to face only lefties — that sounds like a great way to isolate his weakest split, which is the opposite of what this team is supposed to be about (that is, maximization of talent through optimization of situation). It’s even worse when you consider that these LOOGY at-bats usually come in the biggest spots. Given all that, it’s no wonder that his splits this year are so crazy, and you’d think that such a dramatic explosion would have spurred action by now. Instead, Abad was called on to retire the lefty Didi Gregorius on Saturday; fortunately, it worked this time. (Note: Abad retired three lefties and a righty on Saturday.)
So, the A’s have four right-handers whom they call on to pitch complete innings — Clippard, Scribner, Rodriguez, and Otero. They have one lefty, Abad, who is cast as a LOOGY but should really be in that first group. Then they have two pieces of filler, Arnold Leon and Angel Castro. Leon has some talent and has generally been a starter in the minors, and it’s arguable that he should still be doing that to stay stretched out and see if he can be a backup plan for the rotation. Castro is a 32-year-old who never made it as a starter and doesn’t yet have any apparent upside as a reliever.
Of course, the A’s have the this guy dominating in Triple-A: (continue reading)