Doing the Splits: Can You Name These Cubs Players Based on Performance vs. LHP and RHP?

There’s nothing I love more than seeing an opposing manager make a move to the ‘pen based on the book, only to see it backfire. But if I had to choose something else I enjoy, it’s the thousands of armchair managers who claim they could do a better job than [insert skipper’s name here] when it comes to personnel decisions. It’s been pretty hard to second-guess Joe Maddon this season, particularly of late, but I wanted to give my readers the chance to see if they know their team well enough to take Maddon’s job.

Below are a series of different splits for some Cubs regulars. See if you can guess which players the numbers represent without looking at the answers at the bottom.

A)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 12.1% 13.6% .89 .342 .464 .550 1.014 .207 .371 30 14.1 .438 184
vs R 11.3% 13.2% .85 .279 .385 .541 .926 .262 .276 64 23.3 .392 152

B)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 13.2% 34.0% .39 .239 .340 .435 .774 .196 .346 14 2.4 .340 117
vs R 13.2% 29.8% .44 .259 .368 .451 .819 .192 .353 52 13.1 .358 129

C)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 10.8% 24.3% .44 .233 .351 .433 .785 .200 .250 5 1 .344 120
vs R 13.3% 25.4% .52 .223 .329 .379 .708 .155 .270 26 -0.2 .310 96

D)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 14.8% 30.9% .48 .239 .358 .284 .642 .045 .372 8 -1.4 .289 81
vs R 5.1% 29.8% .17 .278 .320 .416 .736 .137 .385 32 1.5 .318 101

E)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 4.6% 17.2% .27 .229 .264 .277 .541 .048 .279 5 -4.8 .241 49
vs R 3.9% 16.3% .24 .239 .273 .309 .582 .070 .273 23 -17.1 .251 56

F)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 11.1% 22.2% .5 .100 .229 .133 .362 .033 .136 0 -3.6 .185 10
vs R 10.7% 17.0% .63 .261 .342 .455 .797 .194 .284 45 8.2 .342 118

G)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 8.1% 23.3% .35 .167 .244 .282 .526 .115 .224 4 -5 .237 46
vs R 7.3% 28.8% .25 .262 .321 .392 .712 .129 .356 32 0.6 .313 98

H)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 8.6% 40.0% .21 .250 .314 .469 .783 .219 .375 5 .8 .340 116
vs R 12.6% 22.1% .57 .338 .432 .625 1.057 .288 .389 21 10.1 .445 189

I)

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 9.1% 24.2% .38 .233 .303 .317 .620 .083 .318 5 -2.1 .272 70
vs R 2.6% 22.6% .12 .287 .310 .380 .689 .093 .358 12 -0.9 .301 90

J) 

Handedness BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+
vs L 11.5% 19.5% .59 .306 .384 .418 .802 .112 .373 16 3.6 .351 124
vs R 12.6% 22.1% .57 .227 .329 .397 .726 .170 .274 46 3 .321 103

 

Alright, that’s 10 sets of stats. Got a pretty good idea of who some of these guys are? I was trying to figure out a way to flip the text or rotate it so that it was backwards, but all the options ended up looking pretty shoddy. So I went old-school invisible-ink style and made the answer text white. The line immediately below this contains the key, so just highlight it to check your guesses or to save yourself much thought. If it’s too much of a chore, I can put it in the comments section later.

A) Rizzo; B) Bryant; C) Montero; D) Soler; E) Castro; F) Coghlan; G) Russell; H) Schwarber; I) Denorfia; J) Fowler

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