Statistical Observations of Mike Redmond

While reading Sox Machine yesterday, I noticed an archived link that showed Mike Redmond was 14-28 in his career versus Mark Buehrle.  I thought that somewhat interesting since Mike Remond is probably most famous for his career line vs. Tom Glavine (21-48).  This caused me to run some numbers on some pitchers I consider similar to Glavine and Buehrle (soft-tossing, control oriented lefties).

• Tom Glavine 21-48   .438
• Mark Buehrle 14-28 .500
• Mike Hampton 9-21 .429
• Barry Zito        0-3    .000
• Jamie Moyer   2-3    .667
• Al Leiter         13-29  .448
• Andy Pettitte  2-3     .667
• Odalis Perez   8-17    .471
• Horacio Ramirez 2-6 .333

Pretty interesting line, don't you think?

Here is how Redmond has fared versus some harder throwing lefties:

• Randy Johnson  5-22  .227
• Oliver Perez       1-4    .225
• Scott Kazmir      2-6    .333
• Erik Bedard       2-5     .400
• CC Sabathia      13-26  .500
• Billy Wagner     2-6     .333
• Ervin Santana   0-6     .000
• Ted Lilly            0-2     .000

Not as impressive, but that 13-26 line against CC is incredible.  I sent my findings to Jon Marthaler, one of the main authors of Twinkietown, to see if he had any insight.  He confirmed what I was thinking:

I like the comparison and I don't think it's surprising Redmond has more success against guys that don't throw particularly hard.  After all, he doesn't exactly have the quickest hands in the league - he's no Paul Molitor, for certain.  Against guys that throw hard, he's sort of reduced to choking up on the bat and trying to poke the ball to right, and while that's not a bad strategy, he looks like a guy with a tennis racket trying to fight off a cannonball.  

Adding to the fact that Joe Mauer is only 4-22 against Buehrle, Redmond at least justifies his #3 spot in the batting order 5 out of his 40 starts each year.