ZiPS doesn't think a whole lot of Ruben Gotay, forecasting a .245/.304/.361 line.

I really wish ZiPS would stop picking on poor Ruben. He was a top prospect once.

.556 OPS-2007
.625 OPS-2006
.501 OPS-2005
.584 OPS-2004
.575 OPS-2003

That's how well lefties have hit Schoeneweis the last 5 years. He has given up 21 xbh during that time and only one homer in 559 PA. Willie was forced to use him more against righties than would have been ideal because of the struggles of Smith and Mota and the injuries to Sanchez and Burgos. As a strict LOOGY, Schoeneweis can help any bullpen.

Sosa's projection has him making 18 starts and an ERA better than a league average starter. I have no qualms with giving Sosa Aaron Sele's job.

Mota will get a chance to prove that he's better than he was last season and that's probably a mistake.

As a strict LOOGY, Schoeneweis can help any bullpen.

But there are no strict LOOGYs really. LOOGYs end up facing about 50% RHB due to pinch-hitters, etc. For Schoenweis, his R/L splits:

2007: 157/108
2006: 118/103
2005: 126/124
2004: mostly a starter
2003: 147/129

So every year as a reliever, more RHB faced than LHB. 2007 was worse than his other years, but there's only so much you can do to get L/L matchups.

By the way, the league-average L/L OPS is 685 (or 699 if you look at pitching splits ... don't ask me) so Schoenweis is probably better than average (that's still not a huge number of batters over 5 years so small sample size warnings attach). Assuming the general trend of relievers being tougher than starters attaches (reliever OPS against about 6.5% lower than starters), the average L/L matchup for a reliever is probably around an OPS of 640-650.

So yes, Schoenweis is a very good guy to have around for the, I'm guessing, roughly 40 really high-leverage PAs when he gets to face a leftie. He's good to have around for the 60-70 low-medium leverage PAs against lefties. He's doing you no good at all in 80-100 low-medium leverage PAs against righties and probably a lot of damage in 20-40 high-leverage PAs against righties.

Anyway, my point isn't against Schoenweis as a LOOGY -- if you're going to have one, you could probably do worse ... and at least his arm might be durable enough to eat up some garbage innings when you need it. My point is that the value of LOOGYs is limited to a pretty small number of PAs and that these tend to be balanced out by a possibly equal number of PAs against righties.

They are important to have around for those high leverage PAs against lefties, but they're really only useful against lefty batters you know the opposition isn't going to pinch-hit for -- surely one of the most common tactical errors by managers on both sides of the ball. These tend to be the best lefty hitters, many of whom do not have substantial problems with lefty pitchers.