Giants manager Bruce Bochy gave first baseman Brandon Belt a vote of confidence Saturday, telling the San Jose Mercury News that he is not in a platoon. But given Belt's history, it might be fair to ask if that is the best decision.
Despite being left handed, Belt has been consistently more productive against lefty pitching in his major-league career. Belt is batting .251 against righties and .274 against lefties in his career, and that split is .218 and .313 this season, respectively. We are dealing with small sample sizes and there are outliers on both ends for batting average on balls in play, but it has been an oddly consistent trend.
For most young left-handed hitters, holding your own against lefties is the toughest part of the transition to the majors. If Belt cannot figure out how to manage the larger part of the platoon split, it won't much matter whether his manager has confidence in him as an everyday player.
Belt is slowly turning things around, with six hits in his last four games, including his first home run, so we are not quite ready to give up on Belt. But he is not an everyday option in Fantasy, even if the Giants use him that way.