It's not often we see a veteran pitcher, with 75 career starts and coming off a 16-win season, get demoted to the minor leagues, but that's what happened (mercifully) to Ervin Santana. As I wrote on Wednesday, this guy's home/road splits are so extreme, it's amazing the Angels don't make some kind of adjustment and let him start only at home. Instead, he'll start in the minors. The team hasn't announced the promotion of Joe Saunders yet, but it's coming. He's not bad at all.
You knew all about Santana and his staggering difference in effectiveness when he doesn't have the home cooking (at least we hope so, since we point it out so much). He's not the only one, however, who has struggled on the road. While I normally subscribe to the theory that I use my top starters no matter where they pitch or whom they are facing (like Roy Halladay against the Yankees the other day), I do study lots of stats, and in the case of Santana and some of these other starters, it's wise to follow the evidence and act accordingly in fantasy. I hadn't used Santana in a road start all year in the one league I have him in, and it wasn't easy, since it's a weekly league, so I also missed a few home starts. But hey, the proof is right there.
Here are some notable pitchers, other than Santana, who warrant home/road split attention.
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Eric Karabell
