Kevin Youkilis and the Significant Home/Road Splits

Fenway Park is a great place to hit. And so far in 2011 it’s where Kevin Youkilis has produced his monster offensive numbers. Through 187 plate appearances at home, Youk boasts a .388/.497/.671 slash line.

If Youkilis had his way he would take every at-bat this season at Fenway Park. And who could blame him? When you look at the numbers, you kind of wish he could hit at Fenway all the time.

If Youkilis does not strike you as a guy who is a product of his home park then you might be surprised to learn that this year he’s struggled mightily on the road. In 175 ABs, Youk is hitting just .193 on the road. His overall batting average is .285 but you have to wonder why it’s so great at home and so difficult on the road for him.

The biggest culprit seems to be his EYE (BB/K). At home, Youkilis has an EYE of nearly 1.00 with 27 walks and 28 strikeouts.

On the road he’s twice as bad with 26 walks and 46 strikeouts. He’s struggled bad at Camden Yards in Baltimore and Progressive Field in Cleveland. If the Red Sox were to face Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs this October, Youkilis would hopefully see a better rate than the 7 percent hit rate he has in 17 ABs there. That’s a BABIP of .077. (Granted a small sample size, but something is odd here)

Youkilis also struggled in Detroit. He had zero hits in Philadelphia and just one hit in three games when the Sox played at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

He’s been OK in Yankee Stadium, terrible in Tampa Bay, but dominant in Toronto.

It’s hard to make out why Youkilis has such huge splits this year. Historically he hasn’t been that kind of hitter. Last season, Youkilis had a slash line of .294/.406/.561 on the road. Could it be that playing third base has affected him? It shouldn’t be a factor. In 2009, when Youkilis basically split his time between first and third base, his slash line was a solid .291/.405/.528.

The two biggest things that jump out are the strikeouts and the batting average of balls in play. On the road, Youkilis balls in play are falling for hits about 21 percent of the time with a .215 BABIP. The whole thing is puzzling. If I had access to Youk, I would love to ask him if he feels uncomfortable away from Fenway this year. Can he put his finger on the drastic splits? April was certainly a tough month for him average-wise, but why the Mendoza-line batting average on the road? I doubt he would say he’s uncomfortable, but i would still like to ask.

Maybe one of our ESPN Boston columnists Gordon Edes or Joe McDonald could throw me a bone and ask the Sox third baseman…

Here is a table with Youkilis’ breakdown by park. The home/road splits are probably just an oddity that will straighten itself out by the time we are all said and done. Youk has about 125 more ABs on the road this year.

Hopefully for the Red Sox’ cleanup hitter they are better than the first 175 ABs.

What are your thoughts on Youk’s splits? Let us know below!