There's a bit of an oddity going on with the Texas Rangers' bullpen right now. After Neal Cotts was called up from Round Rock and Cory Burns was sent down to Round Rock on Wednesday, the Rangers are alone in all of baseball as a team with a bullpen featuring more left-handed pitchers than right-handers.
The Rangers' bullpen features four southpaws — Joseph Ortiz, Michael Kirkman, Cotts and Robbie Ross — with only three right-handers in Tanner Scheppers, Joe Nathan and Jason Frasor.
In most cases, the majority of lefties in the bullpen are left-handed specialists, meaning they are used mainly to get one or two hitters on the left side of the plate out in late-game, key situations. But Rangers manager Ron Washington insists his lefties are nothing of the sort, although Cotts has been death to lefties this year both in Triple-A and his in brief two-game stint in Arlington.
"It’s not a handicap,” manager Ron Washington said in The Dallas Morning News of having four left-handers. “If the guys are able to get outs, it doesn’t really matter. They’ve got good stuff.
“Some situations that are presented to you, there is no clear-cut answer. You have to do what you think you have to do. This is what we thought we had to do.”
