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.
Also check out today’s Daily Fantasy Baseball picks for FanDuel.
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.
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 for 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
|
Derek Norris | Mike Montgomery |
494
|
39.3%
|
6.655
|
2.100
|
|
C
|
Jonathan Lucroy | Cole Hamels |
497
|
22.7%
|
6.927
|
1.752
|
|
C
|
Josh Phegley | Jorge De La Rosa |
106
|
30.2%
|
5.189
|
1.505
|
|
C
|
Salvador Perez | Dallas Keuchel |
486
|
26.4%
|
6.224
|
1.431
|
|
2B
|
Jose Altuve | Danny Duffy |
680
|
26.9%
|
5.533
|
1.362
|
|
2B
|
Elian Herrera | Cole Hamels |
138
|
29.4%
|
4.837
|
1.200
|
|
3B
|
Josh Donaldson | Eduardo Rodriguez |
530
|
26.8%
|
8.396
|
2.708
|
|
3B
|
Aramis Ramirez | Cole Hamels |
529
|
22.5%
|
7.656
|
1.864
|
|
3B
|
Will Middlebrooks | Mike Montgomery |
339
|
30.0%
|
5.752
|
1.221
|
|
3B
|
Elian Herrera | Cole Hamels |
138
|
29.4%
|
4.837
|
1.200
|
|
OF
|
Ryan Braun | Cole Hamels |
599
|
24.8%
|
8.460
|
1.560
|
|
OF
|
Matt Kemp | Mike Montgomery |
609
|
26.1%
|
7.869
|
1.457
|
|
OF
|
Chris Young | Andrew Heaney |
626
|
32.5%
|
6.222
|
1.362
|
|
OF
|
Justin Upton | Mike Montgomery |
704
|
24.4%
|
7.468
|
1.298
|
Extreme Platoon Splits for Batters Facing RHP
|
Pos.
|
Name | Opposing Pitcher |
PA
|
%
|
FD/10PA
|
+/- Diff
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
C
|
Brayan Pena | Phil Hughes |
873
|
68.6%
|
3.992
|
1.154
|
|
C
|
Yasmani Grandal | Rubby De La Rosa |
752
|
76.4%
|
6.154
|
1.261
|
|
C
|
Travis d’Arnaud | Kyle Hendricks |
471
|
77.2%
|
5.159
|
1.364
|
|
C
|
J. Saltalamacchia | Carlos Frias |
1393
|
76.5%
|
6.009
|
1.852
|
|
C
|
Nick Hundley | Sonny Gray |
1031
|
75.1%
|
5.082
|
2.370
|
|
C
|
Alex Avila | Gerrit Cole |
1423
|
75.1%
|
6.117
|
2.383
|
|
1B
|
Chris Davis | Colby Lewis |
1617
|
71.8%
|
7.092
|
1.041
|
|
1B
|
Brandon Belt | Mat Latos |
1301
|
74.6%
|
6.065
|
1.194
|
|
1B
|
Logan Morrison | Ian Kennedy |
1357
|
73.6%
|
5.508
|
1.198
|
|
1B
|
James Loney | Danny Salazar |
1800
|
74.6%
|
4.958
|
1.255
|
|
1B
|
Adrian Gonzalez | Rubby De La Rosa |
2069
|
69.1%
|
7.069
|
1.494
|
|
1B
|
Ryan Howard | Taylor Jungmann |
1535
|
70.9%
|
6.384
|
1.623
|
|
1B
|
Mitch Moreland | Miguel Gonzalez |
1352
|
76.2%
|
5.834
|
1.829
|
|
1B
|
Freddie Freeman | Jordan Zimmermann |
1934
|
67.3%
|
7.051
|
1.871
|
|
1B
|
Adam LaRoche | Lance Lynn |
1671
|
73.8%
|
6.396
|
2.100
|
|
1B
|
Pedro Alvarez | Justin Verlander |
1683
|
78.8%
|
5.979
|
2.157
|
|
1B
|
Lucas Duda | Kyle Hendricks |
1555
|
74.9%
|
6.532
|
2.252
|
|
1B
|
Justin Morneau | Sonny Gray |
1501
|
69.9%
|
6.352
|
3.229
|
|
2B
|
Dee Gordon | Ryan Vogelsong |
1209
|
74.2%
|
4.287
|
0.890
|
|
2B
|
Rougned Odor | Miguel Gonzalez |
376
|
69.5%
|
4.907
|
1.255
|
|
2B
|
Chase Utley | Taylor Jungmann |
1542
|
68.2%
|
5.866
|
1.280
|
|
2B
|
Daniel Murphy | Kyle Hendricks |
1873
|
72.3%
|
5.432
|
1.428
|
|
2B
|
Chris Owings | Carlos Frias |
491
|
77.2%
|
4.389
|
1.613
|
|
2B
|
Jason Kipnis | Erasmo Ramirez |
1538
|
65.3%
|
6.081
|
1.716
|
|
2B
|
Robinson Cano | Ian Kennedy |
1941
|
64.3%
|
7.257
|
2.022
|
|
2B
|
Neil Walker | Justin Verlander |
2004
|
78.0%
|
5.924
|
2.097
|
|
3B
|
Kyle Seager | Ian Kennedy |
1650
|
66.4%
|
5.748
|
1.075
|
|
3B
|
Daniel Murphy | Kyle Hendricks |
1873
|
72.3%
|
5.432
|
1.428
|
|
3B
|
Justin Turner | Rubby De La Rosa |
918
|
66.0%
|
5.931
|
1.593
|
|
3B
|
Conor Gillaspie | Lance Lynn |
964
|
83.6%
|
5.083
|
2.490
|
|
3B
|
Pablo Sandoval | Marco Estrada |
1698
|
71.6%
|
6.338
|
2.498
|
|
SS
|
Jimmy Rollins | Rubby De La Rosa |
2101
|
73.0%
|
5.174
|
1.287
|
|
SS
|
Wilmer Flores | Kyle Hendricks |
484
|
77.2%
|
4.871
|
1.689
|
|
SS
|
Brad Miller | Ian Kennedy |
726
|
73.8%
|
5.255
|
2.183
|
|
OF
|
Christian Yelich | Ryan Vogelsong |
837
|
72.7%
|
5.245
|
1.094
|
|
OF
|
Nick Markakis | Jordan Zimmermann |
2023
|
69.7%
|
5.272
|
1.157
|
|
OF
|
Michael Brantley | Erasmo Ramirez |
1758
|
66.1%
|
5.843
|
1.179
|
|
OF
|
Alejandro De Aza | Marco Estrada |
1673
|
79.1%
|
5.323
|
1.188
|
|
OF
|
Denard Span | Shelby Miller |
1748
|
71.7%
|
5.043
|
1.193
|
|
OF
|
Grady Sizemore | Taylor Jungmann |
589
|
75.5%
|
4.533
|
1.287
|
|
OF
|
Brandon Moss | Erasmo Ramirez |
1296
|
78.5%
|
6.968
|
1.364
|
|
OF
|
Leonys Martin | Miguel Gonzalez |
999
|
71.8%
|
4.772
|
1.386
|
|
OF
|
Matt Joyce | Ivan Nova |
1861
|
85.5%
|
5.693
|
1.407
|
|
OF
|
Bryce Harper | Shelby Miller |
1220
|
68.7%
|
7.143
|
1.491
|
|
OF
|
Ender Inciarte | Carlos Frias |
497
|
69.6%
|
4.673
|
1.516
|
|
OF
|
Seth Smith | Ian Kennedy |
1778
|
83.6%
|
5.873
|
1.759
|
|
OF
|
David Murphy | Erasmo Ramirez |
1645
|
80.1%
|
5.533
|
1.894
|
|
OF
|
Corey Dickerson | Sonny Gray |
657
|
79.7%
|
7.256
|
2.391
|
|
OF
|
Carlos Gonzalez | Sonny Gray |
1411
|
67.3%
|
7.679
|
2.409
|
|
OF
|
Anthony Gose | Gerrit Cole |
689
|
81.3%
|
4.343
|
2.429
|
|
OF
|
Kevin Kiermaier | Danny Salazar |
477
|
79.0%
|
5.493
|
2.560
|
|
OF
|
Gregory Polanco | Justin Verlander |
444
|
77.9%
|
5.310
|
2.710
|
|
OF
|
Andre Ethier | Rubby De La Rosa |
1699
|
73.1%
|
6.324
|
2.874
|
|
OF
|
Shin-Soo Choo | Miguel Gonzalez |
1721
|
67.0%
|
6.576
|
2.992
|
|
OF
|
David DeJesus | Danny Salazar |
1663
|
83.8%
|
5.546
|
3.108
|
|
OF
|
David Peralta | Carlos Frias |
438
|
79.6%
|
6.170
|
3.871
|
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