"The likelihood of an all-lefty outfield, a rare occurrence, draws little concern from manager Trey Hillman as the Royals work their way toward opening day.

It helps, certainly, that Chicago's Mark Buehrle and John Danks are the only left-handed starters of consequence among other teams in the American League Central Division.

But Hillman also contends left fielder Scott Podsednik and right fielder David DeJesus more than hold their own against left-handed pitchers.

"David has a good history (against lefties)," Hillman said. "Pod's best season, his most recent season, he was actually a little higher against left than he was right. I'm not too concerned about it."

Numbers bear that out, although DeJesus' power -- i.e., his slugging percentage -- drops significantly against left-handed pitchers. And while stats confirm Podsednik was better last year against lefties, his career splits are fairly even against both sides.

Ankiel is a different story.

His career batting average doesn't vary much -- .253 against righties and .245 against lefties -- but his on-base percentage plummets from .320 to an unacceptable .285.

The split was even worse in 2008, which is significant because it is that Ankiel the Royals hoped they signed. Club officials (and Ankiel, for that matter) want to view last season as an injury-plagued aberration.

Ankiel batted .264 in 2008 with 25 homers and 71 RBIs, but his production was heavily weighted against right-handed pitchers, i.e., a .279 average with a .362 on-base percentage and a .529 slugging percentage."