The premise of this article is simple. Some hitters do much better against left-handed pitchers and some against right-handed pitchers. These hitters are said to have platoon advantages when they face those pitchers.
Since Daily Fantasy Baseball gaming sites calculate their player salaries largely based on overall statistics, the players with extreme platoon splits carry extra value on those days.
Each day I’ll list the players with the most extreme platoon splits for that day’s games. This should give you a starting point in building your Daily Fantasy Baseball Lineups.
Also check out today’s Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks for FanDuel.
If you understand the concept and want to skip further explanation, feel free to skip down to the lists.
How Do I Identify Players With Extreme Platoon Splits?
The pool of players I draw from to build these lists come from two resources I’ve created:
To be honest, I’m not sure how many hitters are on each list. It started out as 70 and 50, but they’ve changed as I have updated the stats.
You can learn more about the process in the two links above, but what I basically did was compute the FanDuel points per 10 plate appearances against LHP and against RHP from the 2011 season through yesterday’s games. I only used players with at least 100 plate appearances or more against pitchers of each hand.
I then compared how many points hitters scored against RHP to those they scored against LHP. Hitters who scored better against lefties had a platoon advantage when they faced a left-handed pitcher and vice-versa.
In order to make the cut a player had to score at least one point more against a pitcher of a certain hand. One point over just 10 plate appearances is actually a pretty big deal.
How Important Are Extreme Platoon Splits?
Exploiting platoon splits should be one of your most important tools in selecting hitters for your DFS lineups. The gaming sites primarily use overall stats to create player salaries, so when a player has extremely different results when facing a pitcher of a given hand, that can provide us with extra value.
Are these players only useful when they have the platoon advantage? Definitely not. Players like Josh Donaldson and Paul Goldschmidt have more value against left-handed pitchers, but they’re also pretty nice options against lesser right-handed pitchers.
This list is not an end-all be-all. Instead it’s a starting point, that provides you with some names to take into consideration. I’ll try to post the platoon advantages every day, but on Sundays and days with just a few games that might not happen.
If you have a suggestion about how these could be more useful, please let me know in the comments. Likewise if you see a mistake (there are a lot of moving parts) please let me know as well.
About the Tables
Pos, Name, and Opposing Pitcher are hopefully self-explanatory. PA is the total plate appearances vs. lefties or righties from 2011 season to present. The % is the percentage of plate appearances each player that have come against pitchers of the given hand. A higher number likely means more of their salary is based on that sample. FD/10PA is the number of FanDuel points that hitter has scored for every 10 plate appearances since the 2011 season. The +/-Diff is the numer of points more per 10 PA they scored against pitchers of the given hand.
Extreme Platoon Splits for Batters Facing LHP
Pos.
|
Name | Opposing Pitcher |
PA
|
%
|
FD/10PA
|
+/- Diff
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C
|
Welington Castillo | Jorge De La Rosa |
288
|
24.7%
|
5.677
|
1.431
|
1B
|
Steve Pearce | Eduardo Rodriguez |
388
|
40.0%
|
6.553
|
1.484
|
1B
|
Paul Goldschmidt | Jorge De La Rosa |
580
|
25.7%
|
8.272
|
0.956
|
2B
|
Steve Pearce | Eduardo Rodriguez |
388
|
40.0%
|
6.553
|
1.484
|
SS
|
Jose Iglesias | Carlos Rodon |
220
|
32.1%
|
4.830
|
1.324
|
OF
|
Scott Van Slyke | Jon Lester |
266
|
47.5%
|
6.560
|
1.254
|
OF
|
Rajai Davis | Carlos Rodon |
602
|
32.6%
|
6.287
|
2.364
|
OF
|
Chris Young | Dallas Keuchel |
626
|
32.5%
|
6.222
|
1.362
|
OF
|
A.J. Pollock | Jorge De La Rosa |
368
|
31.9%
|
6.365
|
1.308
|
OF
|
Steve Pearce | Eduardo Rodriguez |
388
|
40.0%
|
6.553
|
1.484
|
Extreme Platoon Splits for Batters Facing RHP
Pos.
|
Name | Opposing Pitcher |
PA
|
%
|
FD/10PA
|
+/- Diff
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C
|
Nick Hundley | Rubby De La Rosa |
1031
|
75.1%
|
5.082
|
2.370
|
C
|
Jason Castro | Adam Warren |
1137
|
76.4%
|
5.565
|
1.918
|
C
|
Miguel Montero | Carlos Fria |
1801
|
76.3%
|
5.881
|
1.667
|
C
|
Travis d’Arnaud | Taylor Jungmann |
471
|
77.2%
|
5.159
|
1.364
|
C
|
Brayan Pena | A.J. Burnett |
873
|
68.6%
|
3.992
|
1.154
|
1B
|
Ike Davis | Colby Lewis |
1319
|
79.2%
|
6.334
|
3.611
|
1B
|
Justin Morneau | Rubby De La Rosa |
1501
|
69.9%
|
6.352
|
3.229
|
1B
|
Adam Lind | Jacob deGrom |
1571
|
78.9%
|
6.499
|
3.059
|
1B
|
Matt Adams | Dan Haren |
897
|
79.7%
|
6.067
|
2.552
|
1B
|
Lucas Duda | Taylor Jungmann |
1555
|
74.9%
|
6.532
|
2.252
|
1B
|
Pedro Alvarez | Anthony DeSclafini |
1683
|
78.8%
|
5.979
|
2.157
|
1B
|
Adam LaRoche | Alfredo Simon |
1671
|
73.8%
|
6.396
|
2.100
|
1B
|
Freddie Freeman | Doug Fister |
1934
|
67.3%
|
7.051
|
1.871
|
1B
|
Mitch Moreland | Sonny Gray |
1352
|
76.2%
|
5.834
|
1.829
|
1B
|
Brandon Belt | James Shields |
1301
|
74.6%
|
6.065
|
1.194
|
2B
|
Neil Walker | Anthony DeSclafini |
2004
|
78.0%
|
5.924
|
2.097
|
2B
|
Daniel Murphy | Taylor Jungmann |
1873
|
72.3%
|
5.432
|
1.428
|
2B
|
Rougned Odor | Sonny Gray |
376
|
69.5%
|
4.907
|
1.255
|
2B
|
Dee Gordon | Lance Lynn |
1209
|
74.2%
|
4.287
|
0.890
|
3B
|
Pablo Sandoval | Miguel Gonzalez |
1698
|
71.6%
|
6.338
|
2.498
|
3B
|
Conor Gillaspie | Alfredo Simon |
964
|
83.6%
|
5.083
|
2.490
|
3B
|
Daniel Murphy | Taylor Jungmann |
1873
|
72.3%
|
5.432
|
1.428
|
3B
|
Luis Valbuena | Adam Warren |
1254
|
80.7%
|
5.277
|
0.963
|
SS
|
Wilmer Flores | Taylor Jungmann |
484
|
77.2%
|
4.871
|
1.689
|
SS
|
Alexi Amarista | Chris Heston |
1146
|
81.5%
|
3.942
|
1.067
|
SS
|
Marwin Gonzalez | Adam Warren |
724
|
78.8%
|
4.050
|
0.781
|
OF
|
Shin-Soo Choo | Sonny Gray |
1721
|
67.0%
|
6.576
|
2.992
|
OF
|
Gregory Polanco | Anthony DeSclafini |
444
|
77.9%
|
5.310
|
2.710
|
OF
|
Carlos Gonzalez | Rubby De La Rosa |
1411
|
67.3%
|
7.679
|
2.409
|
OF
|
Corey Dickerson | Rubby De La Rosa |
657
|
79.7%
|
7.256
|
2.391
|
OF
|
Chris Coghlan | Carlos Fria |
1020
|
79.6%
|
4.978
|
2.009
|
OF
|
Josh Reddick | Colby Lewis |
1459
|
70.8%
|
6.239
|
1.637
|
OF
|
Bryce Harper | Matt Wisler |
1220
|
68.7%
|
7.143
|
1.491
|
OF
|
Jason Heyward | Dan Haren |
1732
|
70.7%
|
5.904
|
1.485
|
OF
|
Gerardo Parra | Jacob deGrom |
1834
|
76.8%
|
5.085
|
1.481
|
OF
|
Leonys Martin | Sonny Gray |
999
|
71.8%
|
4.772
|
1.386
|
OF
|
Colby Rasmus | Adam Warren |
1576
|
72.0%
|
5.950
|
1.337
|
OF
|
Denard Span | Matt Wisler |
1748
|
71.7%
|
5.043
|
1.193
|
OF
|
Alejandro De Aza | Miguel Gonzalez |
1673
|
79.1%
|
5.323
|
1.188
|
OF
|
Nick Markakis | Doug Fister |
2023
|
69.7%
|
5.272
|
1.157
|
OF
|
Christian Yelich | Lance Lynn |
837
|
72.7%
|
5.245
|
1.094
|
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