Everywhere Milwaukee Brewers’ second baseman, Scooter Gennett has gone, he has had doubters. He has been viewed as too small and not strong enough to be a big league regular. Though he put up numbers year after year, he was continually left off of top prospect rankings.
But after climbing the ranks throughout the minor league system, questions remain about his talent. The newest question surrounding Gennett is whether or not he can hit left-handed pitching enough to stay out of a platoon. Though he has had almost no success versus lefties in his major league career, he will prove that his name can be written in the lineup on a daily basis no matter who is on the mound.
Critics have numbers to backup their claims so far. With 83 major league plate appearances against southpaws, Gennett has just a .150 on-base percentage and a .128 batting average. Simply looking at these numbers are very unreliable. The sample size and opportunities are just to small to factor as true.
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Throughout his minor league career, Gennett has proven otherwise. For example, in 2011 playing in Class A Brevard County, Gennett batted .282 versus left handed pitchers. In 2013 playing in AAA Nashville he batted .257 against them. If he can prove to hit anywhere near these numbers in the major leagues, he will easily be able to maintain his spot in the lineup on a daily basis.
Earlier in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, Todd Rosiak quoted Ron Roenicke saying, “The only thing different I’d say (we’ll do) is give him the opportunity to hit left-handers, so he’s not a platoon guy.”