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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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