Shin-Soo Choo Will Sit Tonight
/The lineup card for tonight's game is up, and for the most part, it reads about like you'd expect. Mitch Moreland will sit against the left-hander Scott Kazmir. Adrian Beltre will get an evening off of his legs as he holds down DH duty and Adam Rosales plays 3B. Perhaps most interestingly, however, is that Shin-Soo Choo will sit tonight with a lefty on the mound, in only the third game of the season.
For his part, Choo has actually fared rather well against Kazmir in 22 career plate appearances. For those appearances, he's put up a 1.108 OPS. Just last year, he was 2-for-3 with two walks as well.
With that said, pitcher-hitter splits aren't usually a reliable long-term indicator of future success, especially when you consider that most are spread pretty thin over a number of seasons. In this case, the 22 plate appearances that Choo has against Scott Kazmir date back to the 2008 season, with a gap between the 2010 and 2014 seasons in which Choo didn't face him.
The part that should interest Rangers fans, however, is that in only the third game of the season, Choo won't be getting the opportunity to hit against a left-hander. It could be a one-time thing as new manager Jeff Banister attempts to "wean" guys into the regular season, but if it's something that we should expect to become a trend, it will be a potentially disturbing development for a guy that Rangers will be paying a lot of money to through the 2020 season.
In any case, your full lineup for tonight:
- CF Martin
- SS Andrus
- DH Beltre
- 1B Fielder
- LF Rua
- RF Smolinski
- 3B Rosales
- 2B Odor
- C Chirinos
On the mound tonight will be Ross Detwiler.