Defending the Decision to Start Zack Cozart

Tonight’s lineup against the Rangers and their lefty starter features Zack Cozart.

Oh no, you say! Why is Cozart still starting?

Not so fast, says Rick Souddress, who was kind enough to chat with me even though it is his birthday and he is on vacation in Colorado.

The expert, most famous for his hot takes on Halos Heaven, did some investigative research into the stats this year. Most intriguingly, Kole Calhoun, although hitting well against righties, actually has just a 31 wRC+ against lefties this year (“That’s bad,” Souddress says matter-of-factly.)

Over the past two weeks, against lefties, Calhoun has a -45 wRC+ (“Unbelievably bad”), whereas Cozart is at -7 (“Worse than bad but better than unbelievably bad.”)

While Cozart is slashing .125/.200/.125, Calhoun is all the way down to .067/.125/.067.

Rick continues, “Calhoun has not only a qualified number of PA in May against lefties...He is one PA from LEADING THE TEAM IN MAY IN PA AGAINST LEFTIES. It’s a good thing he has a wRC+ of 20 in that span!!! And the majority of those hits came in the first week of May...”

He continued to rant and rave, but I quickly hung up the phone and let the maestro get back to his vacation.

Happy Birthday, Rick!