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
|
Welington Castillo | Brett Anderson |
288
|
24.7%
|
5.677
|
1.431
|
|
C
|
Robinson Chirinos | Wei-Yin Chen |
176
|
29.2%
|
5.568
|
0.914
|
|
1B
|
Paul Goldschmidt | Brett Anderson |
580
|
25.7%
|
8.272
|
0.956
|
|
2B
|
Dustin Pedroia | Mark Buehrle |
867
|
28.9%
|
6.424
|
1.135
|
|
SS
|
Xander Bogaerts | Mark Buehrle |
258
|
28.5%
|
5.291
|
1.264
|
|
OF
|
Michael Cuddyer | Jon Lester |
545
|
27.4%
|
7.326
|
1.406
|
|
OF
|
A.J. Pollock | Brett Anderson |
368
|
31.9%
|
6.365
|
1.308
|
|
OF
|
Scott Van Slyke | Robbie Ray |
266
|
47.5%
|
6.560
|
1.254
|
Extreme Platoon Splits for Batters Facing RHP
|
Pos.
|
Name | Opposing Pitcher |
PA
|
%
|
FD/10PA
|
+/- Diff
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
C
|
Brayan Pena | Trevor May |
873
|
68.6%
|
3.992
|
1.154
|
|
C
|
Miguel Montero | Bartolo Colon |
1801
|
76.3%
|
5.881
|
1.667
|
|
C
|
Jason Castro | Edinson Volquez |
1137
|
76.4%
|
5.565
|
1.918
|
|
C
|
Nick Hundley | Jesse Hahn |
1031
|
75.1%
|
5.082
|
2.370
|
|
C
|
Alex Avila | A.J. Burnett |
1423
|
75.1%
|
6.117
|
2.383
|
|
1B
|
Adam LaRoche | John Lackey |
1671
|
73.8%
|
6.396
|
2.100
|
|
1B
|
Chris Davis | Nick Martinez |
1617
|
71.8%
|
7.092
|
1.041
|
|
1B
|
Brandon Belt | Dan Haren |
1301
|
74.6%
|
6.065
|
1.194
|
|
1B
|
Logan Morrison | James Shields |
1357
|
73.6%
|
5.508
|
1.198
|
|
1B
|
James Loney | Carlos Carrasco |
1800
|
74.6%
|
4.958
|
1.255
|
|
1B
|
Ryan Howard | Kyle Lohse |
1535
|
70.9%
|
6.384
|
1.623
|
|
1B
|
Eric Hosmer | Vincent Velasquez |
1813
|
67.8%
|
5.887
|
1.774
|
|
1B
|
Freddie Freeman | Doug Fister |
1934
|
67.3%
|
7.051
|
1.871
|
|
1B
|
Pedro Alvarez | Alfredo Simon |
1683
|
78.8%
|
5.979
|
2.157
|
|
1B
|
Adam Lind | Aaron Harang |
1571
|
78.9%
|
6.499
|
3.059
|
|
1B
|
Justin Morneau | Jesse Hahn |
1501
|
69.9%
|
6.352
|
3.229
|
|
1B
|
Ike Davis | Chad Bettis |
1319
|
79.2%
|
6.334
|
3.611
|
|
2B
|
Dee Gordon | Chris Heston |
1209
|
74.2%
|
4.287
|
0.890
|
|
2B
|
Chase Utley | Kyle Lohse |
1542
|
68.2%
|
5.866
|
1.280
|
|
2B
|
Stephen Drew | Matt Shoemaker |
1238
|
71.9%
|
5.277
|
1.648
|
|
2B
|
Jason Kipnis | Alex Colome |
1538
|
65.3%
|
6.081
|
1.716
|
|
2B
|
Robinson Cano | James Shields |
1941
|
64.3%
|
7.257
|
2.022
|
|
2B
|
Neil Walker | Alfredo Simon |
2004
|
78.0%
|
5.924
|
2.097
|
|
3B
|
Conor Gillaspie | John Lackey |
964
|
83.6%
|
5.083
|
2.490
|
|
3B
|
Luis Valbuena | Edinson Volquez |
1254
|
80.7%
|
5.277
|
0.963
|
|
3B
|
Kyle Seager | James Shields |
1650
|
66.4%
|
5.748
|
1.075
|
|
3B
|
Mike Moustakas | Vincent Velasquez |
1666
|
73.5%
|
4.869
|
1.250
|
|
SS
|
Marwin Gonzalez | Edinson Volquez |
724
|
78.8%
|
4.050
|
0.781
|
|
SS
|
Alexi Amarista | Taijuan Walker |
1146
|
81.5%
|
3.942
|
1.067
|
|
SS
|
Brad Miller | James Shields |
726
|
73.8%
|
5.255
|
2.183
|
|
SS
|
Didi Gregorius | Matt Shoemaker |
727
|
75.8%
|
4.828
|
2.544
|
|
OF
|
Christian Yelich | Chris Heston |
837
|
72.7%
|
5.245
|
1.094
|
|
OF
|
Jacoby Ellsbury | Matt Shoemaker |
1675
|
67.1%
|
6.137
|
1.122
|
|
OF
|
Nick Markakis | Doug Fister |
2023
|
69.7%
|
5.272
|
1.157
|
|
OF
|
Michael Brantley | Alex Colome |
1758
|
66.1%
|
5.843
|
1.179
|
|
OF
|
Denard Span | Matt Wisler |
1748
|
71.7%
|
5.043
|
1.193
|
|
OF
|
Grady Sizemore | Kyle Lohse |
589
|
75.5%
|
4.533
|
1.287
|
|
OF
|
Colby Rasmus | Edinson Volquez |
1576
|
72.0%
|
5.950
|
1.337
|
|
OF
|
Brandon Moss | Alex Colome |
1296
|
78.5%
|
6.968
|
1.364
|
|
OF
|
Matt Joyce | Nathan Eovaldi |
1861
|
85.5%
|
5.693
|
1.407
|
|
OF
|
Gerardo Parra | Aaron Harang |
1834
|
76.8%
|
5.085
|
1.481
|
|
OF
|
Bryce Harper | Matt Wisler |
1220
|
68.7%
|
7.143
|
1.491
|
|
OF
|
Josh Reddick | Chad Bettis |
1459
|
70.8%
|
6.239
|
1.637
|
|
OF
|
Seth Smith | James Shields |
1778
|
83.6%
|
5.873
|
1.759
|
|
OF
|
David Murphy | Alex Colome |
1645
|
80.1%
|
5.533
|
1.894
|
|
OF
|
Chris Coghlan | Bartolo Colon |
1020
|
79.6%
|
4.978
|
2.009
|
|
OF
|
Corey Dickerson | Jesse Hahn |
657
|
79.7%
|
7.256
|
2.391
|
|
OF
|
Carlos Gonzalez | Jesse Hahn |
1411
|
67.3%
|
7.679
|
2.409
|
|
OF
|
Anthony Gose | A.J. Burnett |
689
|
81.3%
|
4.343
|
2.429
|
|
OF
|
Kevin Kiermaier | Carlos Carrasco |
477
|
79.0%
|
5.493
|
2.560
|
|
OF
|
Gregory Polanco | Alfredo Simon |
444
|
77.9%
|
5.310
|
2.710
|
|
OF
|
David DeJesus | Carlos Carrasco |
1663
|
83.8%
|
5.546
|
3.108
|
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