This just in: Curtis Granderson can’t hit left-handed pitching

Curtis Granderson has been a huge disappointment in his first season with the Yankees, posting career-lows in batting average (.240), on-base percentage (.307), and slugging percentage (.417). What’s interesting about Granderson’s career-worst production is that his numbers against right-handed pitching (.259/.339/.492) are only about six percent worse than his career mark. The bigger difference has been his total inability to hit left-handed pitching while getting more playing time against southpaws than ever before. Granderson has never handled lefties well, hitting just .210/.267/.336 against them for his career, but after going 0-for-3 versus Jon Lester yesterday--including a strikeout with the bases loaded in the seventh inning--he’s now batting just .206/.243/.275 off southpaws this season. That represents a 15 percent drop in production, which is compounded by the fact that Granderson has already racked up 110 plate appearances versus lefties. So far this year 33 percent of his trips to the plate have come versus lefties, compared to 23 percent prior to this season. In moving to the AL East he’s facing far more lefties than ever before and Joe Girardi has been far less willing to bench him against lefties than Jim Leyland was in Detroit. Granderson is 29 years old and has 800 career plate appearances of a sub-.600 OPS versus lefties. For a team with the Yankees’ record and resources he has no business being in the lineup against them at this point. Finding him a platoon partner shouldn’t be that hard.