The lefty starters are death to the team who owns them, unless their starter is Randy Johnson (who'll do well but not as great as Pedro Martinez would do for his team), for the simple reason that there are numerous hitters such as Viscaino and Gilkey who bat well over .300 with power and can be used exclusively as platoon hitters against LH starters. But try that with a similar guy who only had two hundred at bats, such as Grebeck! He'll run out of at bats before game eighty. That's why Klesko is more valuable than Viscaino (more ABs), although as a platoon player Viscaino will devastate LHP more effectively than Klesko will RHP. Thus, your LH starters will be toast compared to your RH starters.

Since the game seems to favour hitters to pitchers by a ration of 47:43 (a ratio I think Bill James once suggested (or Mike once quoted it) and would support the argument that good hitting beats good pitching, which Mike has argued that it does (the remaining 10% goes to defence)), hitters who clobber lefties can get away with more with fewer at bats than hitters who clobber righties since you meet a lefty maybe once per series. Even so, you do need good left handed relievers to get out Ken Griffey Jr. Of course, if the guy pulls him and pinch hits with Glenallen Hill, what can you do? But at least Griffey's out of the game which is why I think the LH reliever is important, but I avoid the starter unless he's above average in real life, which means he'll be average or worse in PB, and if he's great he should be okay. Please note: I'm generalizing, there are exceptions, but most of us will hate owning Hampton and wish we had Lima instead.

Despite such disparaging remarks about lefty starters, I have had Justin Thompson win twenty games but he was never dominating, however, nor will he ever be I suspect in PB. I'll use him as an inning eater and hope for the best.