What Does Raul Valdes Have to Offer?

Just yesterday we received news that the the Mets will place reliever Sean Green on the 15-day DL and call-up the left-handed enigma known as Raul Valdes.

When I checked Minor League Splits to see what Raul Valdes has to offer against lefties, I almost had a heart attack; the batting average against vs left handed hitters is a whopping .343 in 50 career minor league innings. However its not all bad - the high batting average against is likely a result of an insanely unlucky .435 BABIP. How do I know its bad luck and not the fact he is just getting ripped apart? Just look at his batted ball data - his career groundball percentage against the southpaws is nearly 50% while his line drive rate is at 16.5% (for reference sake, Pedro Feliciano's career line drive rate against lefties is 16.2%). His other career peripherals against lefties are rather solid too: 3.10 FIP, 1.44 BB/9, 8.82 K/9, 7.4% HR/FB.

Now of course, there is a flip-side to all of this: for one, these sample sizes are spread out over a 3-year period, with 2007 (!) being the last year of data; Valdes has been out of professional baseball for 2 years, and has never appeared in a Major League game. Another thing is that approximately 60 of his career 198+ minor league innings were at high-A or AA, at the ancient ages of 27 and 29, likely pitching against players 7-8 years his junior.

So what should we expect from Valdes? Frankly, I'm not really sure. I'll guess we'll find out soon enough, though.