R.J. Anderson comments on Shoppach at The Process Report and it led me to look up his career numbers vs. lefties.

I do not understand why there is such hostility among some people towards him. It is true his overall numbers were terrible last year, and it is also true that his entire career vs. lefties only reflects 361 plate appearances. But even with last year being his poorest performance in his career, his success has been remarkably consistent and good.

Here are the numbers:

Career: 306 PAs: .286/.381/.568

2010: 103 PAs: .261/.369/.455

2009: 70 PAs: .304/.420/.625

2008: 104 PAs: .304/.373/.576

2007: 41 PAs: .265/.390/.735

2006: 39 PAs: .314/.368/.629

He has also hit a home run approximately every 14.67 ABs off lefties in his career.

For anyone, but especially a catcher, those seem excellent numbers as a platoon player. Even in an off year he had an OPS of .824, and while the sample size total remains small, it seems to suggest he is better than that. Perhaps Chirinos will be better, but he has no major league experience for us to measure him against Shoppach.