Splitsville: Mike Vento v1.1

"Splitsville" is a series of articles on the Yankees' prospects that we'll be doing throughout their minor league careers. In version one/chapter one (v1.1) of Mike Vento, we'll look how he's doing against the right-handed pitchers versus the southpaws, how he's hitting with runners in scoring position, and more.

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Murdering Lefties!: Mike Vento wished baseball had nothing but southpaws on the mound, especially this season. While he's hitting a very respectable .288 against right-handed pitchers, Vento is teeing off on lefties to the tune of a .442 batting average this season!

But even more impressive than his average against left-handed pitchers is his percentage of extra-base hits against them this season. Almost half, 48.6% to be exact, of his hits against southpaws have gone for extra bases this year. He's no slouch against the right-handed pitchers either, hitting 37.1% of his hits for extra bases, but he's just terrorizing the lefties.

As a result, left-handed pitchers are starting to stay away from pitching to him. Vento has drawn a walk in 14.4% of his plate appearances against left-handed pitchers while drawing a walk in just 7.6% of his appearances against right-handed pitchers.

Hot As The Summer Months: It seemed there was no direction but down for Vento after hitting .337 in his first 21 games with the Clippers this season. And after hitting just .240 in his following 26 games, that apparently seemed to be the case. But somebody forgot to tell him that he couldn't best his hot start in April. Mike Vento is hitting .381 in his last 37 games with 19 doubles, 7 home runs, and 34 RBI. Now that's hot!

Cooper Power Outage: Mike Vento has hit well at home, hitting .318 at Cooper Stadium. His home versus road splits get a lot more interesting however in the power department. Vento has just 2 home runs at Cooper Stadium this year while clubbing 9 on the road. He's hitting .337 in his road games with an amazing 21 more RBI away from home.

Money In The Clutch: To say Mike Vento has been a clutch hitter for the Clippers this season would be quite the understatement. He's hitting .371 with runners in scoring position this year and .342 with runners in scoring position and with two outs. His .371 batting average with runners in scoring position is actually more than twice as good as uber-prospect, Eric Duncan.

Patience Is A Virtue: A big reason why the Clippers have had so many big innings this year has been Mike Vento's approach with runners on base this season. 19 of his 34 walks this year have come with runners already on base. Combining that with his .333 batting average with runners on base and he has been an offensive catalyst in the Clippers lineup.

	AVG	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS
vs Left	.446	83	19	37	14	1	3	22	14	10	0	2
vs Right	.288	243	29	70	17	1	8	43	20	47	0	1
The Splits
Leading Off	.363	80	2	29	6	0	2	2	9	12	0	0
Bases Empty	.324	170	5	55	14	1	5	5	15	27	0	0
Bases Loaded	.400	5	8	2	0	1	0	5	0	1	0	0
Scoring Position	.371	89	37	33	11	1	4	52	10	17	0	0
RISP w/ 2 outs	.342	38	15	13	5	0	3	19	4	8	0	0
Runners On	.333	156	43	52	17	1	6	60	19	30	0	3
runners ON w/ 2 outs	.347	75	19	26	10	0	4	25	9	16	0	1

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