If you haven’t read Will Woods article over at Baseball Prospectus, stop what you’re doing here, click on the link, and return after you’re done. It’s a rare piece in the modern baseball writing community that focuses on the psychology of the game instead of raw data. A true common sense piece.

Woods talks about the predictability of Francisco Rodriguez, especially when he doesn’t have his fastball. There have been days that K-Rod tops out at 90 mph, forcing him to nibble with his command and overuse his curveball and changeup. I believe Woods’s piece summarize K-Rod’s season in those two innings on that Sunday afternoon in San Francisco. Smart hitters can capitalize, subpar hitters fail to make the adjustment and wave at his off speed offerings like Bugs Bunny. Fortunately for the Mets, Eli Whiteside played Bugs Bunny that day.

During last night’s ninth inning something jumped out at me: K-Rod’s lefty/righty splits. I don’t know why last night, versus dozens of other outings, his BAA vs. lefties came to my attention. This probably has been discussed somewhere else, but on the season left handed batters are hitting .282 with a .768 OPS. This is well above his career norm where lefties hit .210 with a .616 OPS.

Some will shout “small sample size,” perhaps K-Rod just has been a victim of specific situations, but he has faced lefties 87 times versus 117 right handed hitters. It’s not all that small when you think about it. What I am getting at is this scary thought: what if K-Rod is trending towards splits that scream situational righty? We complain about how the Mets bullpen has too many situational pitchers. Bobby Parnell, Pedro Feliciano, Raul Valdes, and Elmer Dessens all have extreme splits versus one side of the plate. Ironically, Valdes, a LHP, is better against right handers – a whole other story.

When Trevor Hoffman started to struggle during his last days in San Diego it was his splits against lefties that became extreme. Perhaps K-Rod’s lack of confidence in the fastball is more against lefties than in general. The good news is this could be an anomaly. Last year he was better against left handers (.185 BAA) overall. Only K-Rod knows for sure. The problem the Mets could have is their sitting on an expensive situational pitcher who they are asking to close out ballgames. That is a scary thought.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com

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Tags: Francisco Rodriguez, K-Rod, New York Mets