1. I don't think it matters all that much what we did this spring. I tend to ignore pretty much all statistical results of spring training.

2. Pujols will hit lefties. Glaus punishes lefties -- his career OPS against them is up around 1.000, so that'll help. It's hard to know with Ankiel (his numbers through 259 career ABs are actually better against lefties). Schumaker's numbers take a hit against lefties, as do Duncan's. Izturis isn't much of a hitter either way, but his numbers are actually a little bit better against lefties historically. Hard to know with Barton...Ludwick is known to hit righties better. Ryan's sample size is tiny, but he's raked lefties to a .350+ BA so far.

To sum up: Pujols, Glaus, Ryan, and Molina all hit lefties well. Miles, Izturis, and LaRue all hit lefties and righties about the same. Duncan, Ludwick, and Kennedy all have trouble with lefties. Barton and Ankiel are question marks.

to sit duncan and ludwick today.

For whatever reason, TLR loved to play Ludwick against lefties last year but he can't hit them (at least he didn't last year and really didn't show otherwise this spring).

Barton hit everyone this spring so if I were making the lineup, I'd stick the hot bat in there. He might not hit much this year, but my hunch is he'll hit early. Might steal us a couple wins and we're gonna need all we can get this year.

with ludwick's minor league record he's hit lefties a little less than righties but not by a wide margin, i'm sure he had a hard time adjusting to major league left-handers frequently for the first time in his career last year, so i'm sure he'll put up better numbers than duncan against lefties (though i'd rather have duncan's power over schumaker's BA if it's a lefty-lefty matchup regardless of schumaker's OBP against lefties)

hopefully we'll at least see barton as a defensive replacement/pinch hitter in the opener. And if we knock out francis early we'll probably see the righty relievers over fuentes and bowie.

How good would it be for pujols or glaus to homer off of wells????

(i do kind of hope if wells comes in in relief he gets booed loudly, no cardinals fan should be happy with his year with us)

Here are Ludwicks career splits vs. RHP and LHP (courtesy k randolph), you can make up your own mind re: him starting against Francis on Monday.

Year rhp / lhp
2002: .267/ .167
2003: .262/ .220
2004: .278/ .188
2005: .250/ .200
2007: .298/ .221

Career: .278----.211

Being primarily a slugger (lifetime.501 SLG) in the minors its hard to think his career minor league BAs (.270 overall) means much in terms of starting Monday one way or the other.

Barton probably should be getting the nod and might if it was'nt Opening Day even tho his success against LHP is still a question mark. Ludwick is THE Vet....

Also questionable is how many times Barton has been HBP in his fairly small sampling of lifetime ABs in the NCAA and minors. Slow to get out of the way?