Randy Choate is quite a Card

Who do lefties hate more: Grover Norquist or Randy Choate?

Lefty relief specialist Randy Choate is on his way to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Check out his 2012 splits and you’ll see why it is a huge pick-up for the Cardinals ‘pen.

Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SO/BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs RHB as LHP	38	52	40	3	13	1	0	0	9	8	0.89	.325	.471	.350	.821
vs LHB as LHP	72	116	101	13	16	3	0	1	9	30	3.33	.158	.243	.218	.461

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table  Generated 12/5/2012.

Choate appeared in 80 games and only allowed 29 hits, only five for extra-bases.

Choate threw 649 pitches, 417 were sinkers, 205 were sliders, and only six were fastballs.

Here's what Choate's sinker looked like against lefties

The one homer that Choate allowed was to Miguel Montero on August 1, on a 3-2 sinker, that was more stinker than sinker

The seventh pitch of that at bat was right in Montero's wheel house.

Of course, it's unfair to highlight Choate's one mistake, but when you are a machine against lefties it is the unusual that is more interesting than the usual.

This should prove to be a good pick-up for the Cards giving them another lefty to compliment Marc Rzepczynski and Choate is much easier to spell and pronounce.