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
|
Jonathan Lucroy | Tommy Milone |
497
|
22.8%
|
6.927
|
1.752
|
C
|
Geovany Soto | David Price |
345
|
28.4%
|
5.891
|
1.307
|
1B
|
Wilin Rosario | Madison Bumgarner |
421
|
28.5%
|
8.456
|
3.194
|
2B
|
Elian Herrera | Tommy Milone |
138
|
29.4%
|
4.837
|
1.200
|
3B
|
Aramis Ramirez | Tommy Milone |
529
|
22.5%
|
7.656
|
1.864
|
3B
|
Elian Herrera | Tommy Milone |
138
|
29.4%
|
4.837
|
1.200
|
3B
|
Nolan Arenado | Madison Bumgarner |
335
|
26.6%
|
6.582
|
0.967
|
SS
|
Jordy Mercer | Alex Wood |
274
|
22.8%
|
6.159
|
2.469
|
SS
|
Troy Tulowitzki | Madison Bumgarner |
517
|
26.6%
|
8.279
|
1.217
|
OF
|
Starling Marte | Alex Wood |
302
|
19.1%
|
7.210
|
2.040
|
OF
|
Andrew McCutchen | Alex Wood |
611
|
20.6%
|
8.449
|
1.874
|
OF
|
Nelson Cruz | Hector Santiago |
604
|
23.4%
|
7.860
|
1.648
|
OF
|
Ryan Braun | Tommy Milone |
599
|
24.8%
|
8.460
|
1.560
|
OF
|
Jonny Gomes | Jeff Locke |
743
|
48.5%
|
6.369
|
1.503
|
OF
|
Mark Trumbo | Hector Santiago |
681
|
27.9%
|
6.758
|
1.255
|
OF
|
Marlon Byrd | Steven Matz |
569
|
27.7%
|
6.024
|
0.960
|
Extreme Platoon Splits for Batters Facing RHP
Pos.
|
Name | Opposing Pitcher |
PA
|
%
|
FD/10PA
|
+/- Diff
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C
|
Alex Avila | Jeff Samardzija |
1423
|
75.1%
|
6.117
|
2.383
|
C
|
Jason Castro | Michael Pineda |
1137
|
76.4%
|
5.565
|
1.918
|
C
|
Jarrod Saltalamacchia | Odrisamer Despaigne |
1393
|
76.5%
|
6.009
|
1.852
|
C
|
Miguel Montero | Carlos Martinez |
1801
|
76.3%
|
5.881
|
1.667
|
C
|
Travis d’Arnaud | Josh Smith |
471
|
77.2%
|
5.159
|
1.364
|
C
|
Yasmani Grandal | Jose Urena |
752
|
76.4%
|
6.154
|
1.261
|
1B
|
Ike Davis | Jeremy Guthrie |
1319
|
79.2%
|
6.334
|
3.611
|
1B
|
Matt Adams | Jason Hammel |
897
|
79.7%
|
6.067
|
2.552
|
1B
|
Lucas Duda | Josh Smith |
1555
|
74.9%
|
6.532
|
2.252
|
1B
|
Mitch Moreland | Drew Hutchison |
1352
|
76.2%
|
5.834
|
1.829
|
1B
|
Eric Hosmer | Jesse Chavez |
1813
|
67.8%
|
5.887
|
1.774
|
1B
|
Ryan Howard | Stephen Strasburg |
1535
|
70.9%
|
6.384
|
1.623
|
1B
|
Adrian Gonzalez | Jose Urena |
2069
|
69.1%
|
7.069
|
1.494
|
1B
|
James Loney | Justin Masterson |
1800
|
74.6%
|
4.958
|
1.255
|
1B
|
Brandon Belt | Kyle Kendrick |
1301
|
74.6%
|
6.065
|
1.194
|
1B
|
Chris Davis | Trevor Bauer |
1617
|
71.8%
|
7.092
|
1.041
|
2B
|
Jason Kipnis | Chris Tillman |
1538
|
65.3%
|
6.081
|
1.716
|
2B
|
Stephen Drew | Collin McHugh |
1238
|
71.9%
|
5.277
|
1.648
|
2B
|
Chris Owings | Odrisamer Despaigne |
491
|
77.2%
|
4.389
|
1.613
|
2B
|
Daniel Murphy | Josh Smith |
1873
|
72.3%
|
5.432
|
1.428
|
2B
|
Chase Utley | Stephen Strasburg |
1542
|
68.2%
|
5.866
|
1.280
|
2B
|
Rougned Odor | Drew Hutchison |
376
|
69.5%
|
4.907
|
1.255
|
2B
|
Dee Gordon | Zack Greinke |
1209
|
74.2%
|
4.287
|
0.890
|
3B
|
Pablo Sandoval | Chris Archer |
1698
|
71.6%
|
6.338
|
2.498
|
3B
|
Justin Turner | Jose Urena |
918
|
66.0%
|
5.931
|
1.593
|
3B
|
Daniel Murphy | Josh Smith |
1873
|
72.3%
|
5.432
|
1.428
|
3B
|
Mike Moustakas | Jesse Chavez |
1666
|
73.5%
|
4.869
|
1.250
|
3B
|
Luis Valbuena | Michael Pineda |
1254
|
80.7%
|
5.277
|
0.963
|
SS
|
Didi Gregorius | Collin McHugh |
727
|
75.8%
|
4.828
|
2.544
|
SS
|
Wilmer Flores | Josh Smith |
484
|
77.2%
|
4.871
|
1.689
|
SS
|
Jimmy Rollins | Jose Urena |
2101
|
73.0%
|
5.174
|
1.287
|
SS
|
Alexi Amarista | Chase Anderson |
1146
|
81.5%
|
3.942
|
1.067
|
SS
|
Marwin Gonzalez | Michael Pineda |
724
|
78.8%
|
4.050
|
0.781
|
OF
|
David Peralta | Odrisamer Despaigne |
438
|
79.6%
|
6.170
|
3.871
|
OF
|
David DeJesus | Justin Masterson |
1663
|
83.8%
|
5.546
|
3.108
|
OF
|
Shin-Soo Choo | Drew Hutchison |
1721
|
67.0%
|
6.576
|
2.992
|
OF
|
Andre Ethier | Jose Urena |
1699
|
73.1%
|
6.324
|
2.874
|
OF
|
Kevin Kiermaier | Justin Masterson |
477
|
79.0%
|
5.493
|
2.560
|
OF
|
Anthony Gose | Jeff Samardzija |
689
|
81.3%
|
4.343
|
2.429
|
OF
|
Chris Coghlan | Carlos Martinez |
1020
|
79.6%
|
4.978
|
2.009
|
OF
|
David Murphy | Chris Tillman |
1645
|
80.1%
|
5.533
|
1.894
|
OF
|
Josh Reddick | Jeremy Guthrie |
1459
|
70.8%
|
6.239
|
1.637
|
OF
|
Ender Inciarte | Odrisamer Despaigne |
497
|
69.6%
|
4.673
|
1.516
|
OF
|
Bryce Harper | Kevin Correia |
1220
|
68.7%
|
7.143
|
1.491
|
OF
|
Jason Heyward | Jason Hammel |
1732
|
70.7%
|
5.904
|
1.485
|
OF
|
Matt Joyce | Felix Hernandez |
1861
|
85.5%
|
5.693
|
1.407
|
OF
|
Leonys Martin | Drew Hutchison |
999
|
71.8%
|
4.772
|
1.386
|
OF
|
Brandon Moss | Chris Tillman |
1296
|
78.5%
|
6.968
|
1.364
|
OF
|
Colby Rasmus | Michael Pineda |
1576
|
72.0%
|
5.950
|
1.337
|
OF
|
Grady Sizemore | Stephen Strasburg |
589
|
75.5%
|
4.533
|
1.287
|
OF
|
Denard Span | Kevin Correia |
1748
|
71.7%
|
5.043
|
1.193
|
OF
|
Alejandro De Aza | Chris Archer |
1673
|
79.1%
|
5.323
|
1.188
|
OF
|
Michael Brantley | Chris Tillman |
1758
|
66.1%
|
5.843
|
1.179
|
OF
|
Jacoby Ellsbury | Collin McHugh |
1675
|
67.1%
|
6.137
|
1.122
|
OF
|
Christian Yelich | Zack Greinke |
837
|
72.7%
|
5.245
|
1.094
|
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