The Rangers are starting a young lefthander named Scott Feldman tonight. Marlon Anderson is playing left field and batting sixth for the Mets. Brian Schneider is catching and batting seventh. Both are lefthanded batters. Chris Aguila (who tore up Triple-A lefties before being recalled this week) and Ramon Castro (who is a better hitter than Schneider in every conceivable way) are sitting on the bench. They are both right-handed hitters.
Where do I begin? Let's start with each of the four players' numbers against left-handed pitchers this season:
Anderson: .000/.000/.000 (only one plate appearance against a lefty this season!)
Schneider: .224/.269/.224 in 49 at-bats
Aguila: .353/.413/.632 in 68 at-bats (with New Orleans)
Castro: .357/.471/.429 in 14 at-bats
Anderson is the second of four straight left-handed batters in the lineup - generally a bad idea against left-handed starters - even though he has an overall batting line of .153/.180/.237 this season. Oh, and he's a second baseman by trade, even if the Mets seem to delight in running him out there in left field. Schneider is the third of the four straight lefties in the lineup, even though he's currently in a 10 for 61 slump.
I have no reason to believe that Randolph checked the splits on Feldman before making out the lineup card tonight, because that's the only way that anyone could make even the slightest logical argument in favor of starting Anderson and Schneider. Feldman seems to have a problem walking left-handed batters this season, so perhaps this was part of Willie's plan to get Anderson and Schneider on base in front of noted run producer Endy Chavez.
Otherwise, tonight's lineup is the latest in a long line of asinine moves that's going to get Willie Randolph fired very soon.
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