Trevor Plouffe appears to be up for good, and has hit very well since being recalled August 13th, to the tune of .311/.354/.511, an 865 OPS. But when you look at his season splits, a disturbing pattern comes to light.

          AVG    OBP    SLG    OPS

Vs L    .333    .367    .467    834

Vs R    .182    .274    .382    656 

It looks as if we might have another Cuddyer/Valencia type hitter. Or does it?

By standard stats, one can clearly see a big platoon split. But what happens if you dig deeper?

          BB%   K%     ISO     BABIP

Vs L    4.1     18.4    .133    .389

Vs R    8.8     22.4    .200    .195

Right there, you can see that Plouffe owes most of his “troubles” against righties to a huge BABIP swing between the Vs R and Vs left. If you were to only look at the first three, you would think he hits better against right-handers, with both more discipline and power. Is there a reason for the BABIP difference, or is it just luck?

Here is the batted ball data.           Via Fangraphs         

           LD%   GB%   FB%   IFFB% HR/FB

Vs L    5.9     58.8    35.3    8.3     8.3

Vs R    11.5    38.5    50.0    12.8    12.8

Again if anything, it looks like Trevor hits better Vs Righties. The only things he does better against lefties is a lower K% (18.4 compared to 22.4) and a lower InField-Fly Ball rate (8.3 to 12.8)

Against Righties, Plouffe takes more walks, hits less grounders, more line drives and fly balls, and those fly balls are more likely to leave the yard.