2061 - Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty – Pitchers and the Handedness

[RonCo]

I saw Shoeless comment about lefty pitchers and how his team wasn’t facing many so far this year. He used the metric of how many starters had faced him. That got me wondering. It’s been awhile since I looked into the pitcher/hitter platoon thing here. Has it changed much? Is there a real advantage to knowing?

That also got me wondering about the GBC—specifically because I recall an issue a few seasons back where there were essentially no LHP in the league (maybe 5% of PA saw a lefthanded pitcher, as I recall).

So I grabbed the latest plate appearance data I’ve got (as of now—5/23), and took a look:


BBA

Handedness (P/B)	L	R	S	Total	PCT
L	4498	10949	1892	17339	30.01%
R	13387	21985	5061	40433	69.99%
Total	17885	32934	6953	57772
PCT	30.96%	57.01%	12.04%

GBC

Handedness (P/B)	L	R	S	Total	PCT
L	845	2049	397	3291	18.07%
R	4786	8386	1753	14925	81.93%
Total	5631	10435	2150	18216
PCT	30.91%	57.28%	11.80%

Bottom line, today the BBA sees 30% of plate appearances are being covered by LHP. In te GBC that’s only 18%, but if my memory is right then that represents a state where the GBC has taken a good step toward the norm. Big ships turn only so fast, right?


Affect on Platoon Advantage

Of particular interest (to me, anyway) is that the scatter of hitters partaking in plate appearances is quite similar between the leagues (LHB ~ 31%, RHB ~ 57%, SHB ~ 12%). This, of course, alters the way the platoon advantage gets distributed.

Doing the quick math, in the BBA, Lefthanded batters get the platoon advantage 75% of their plate appearances. Righthanded batters in the BBA get the advantage about 33% of the time. In the GBC, left-handed batters get that extra nudge 85% of their appearances, and right-handed batters only 19%. This will, obviously, affect league output and overall stats. In other words, BBA GMs signing LHB from the GBC can expect their numbers to go down a bit simply because they are going to left-handed pitching about twice as often as they have in the world they are coming from.


So, what about team differentiation?

Obviously, every team will be different, depending on their roster construction. Since Sacramento is the one who got this party started, I decided to pull the Mad Pope’s Data. Here is the Sacramento pitcher’s table:

Handedness (P/B)	L	R	S	Total	PCT
L	178	630	189	997	55.92%
R	204	430	152	786	44.08%
Total	382	1060	341	1783
PCT	21.42%	59.45%	19.13%

Interesting, right? Whereas the league number is about 30% of PA see LHP, when you play Sacramento, that becomes 56%. So your LHB will be fighting the platoon advantage a whopping 47% of the time. (And that’s made even more huge because the L vs. L platoon advantage is much bigger than the R vs. R split). And whereas RHB across the league only receive that platoon advantage 33% of the time, they get is 59% of the time when facing Sacramento.

For completeness purposes, here are the results totals I have for SAC pitchers

SAC Pitchers	1B	2B	3B	BB	Bunt-Out	E	FO	GO	HBP	HR	IBB	K	Sac	Total
L	176	38	4	66	2	13	252	258	2	14	6	161	1	993
R	114	34	4	57		10	223	176	8	20	1	137	1	785
Total	290	72	8	123	2	23	475	434	10	34	7	298	2	1778

Here are their numbers against LHB:

Vs. LHB	1B	2B	3B	BB	E	FO	GO	HBP	HR	K	Total
L	27	4		5	2	51	58			30	177
R	30	11	2	17	5	52	43	2	5	37	204
Total	57	15	2	22	7	103	101	2	5	67	381

And vs. RHB:

Vs. RHB	1B	2B	3B	BB	Bunt-Out	E	FO	GO	HBP	HR	IBB	K	Sac	Total
L	123	28	4	48	2	9	160	146	1	7	5	96		629
R	64	18	1	27		4	125	98	4	11	1	75	1	429
Total	187	46	5	75	2	13	285	244	5	18	6	171	1	1058

[shoeless.db]

My heavy-handedness with lefty hurlers is what made me surprised about facing only five LHP starts. It does feel (since I don’t do numbers, that’s all I have to work with) as though platoon advantage has been merged a bit with v25. But that could be due to how splits are now figured or shown. Before, it seemed like every hitter had a split of some kind. They are rarer now.

Also, the lack of lefties out there has me even more excited about the Year of the Zurdo.

[BaseClogger]

The Pacific seems tilted towards more RH heavy lineups so I view the lack of lefties the Popes have seen as an adjustment to that fact.

[woods]

Interesting. I think the GBC's perpetual lack of lefties is a testament to what Shoeless says in his linked article above, "A solid lefty is better than a solid righty". Meaning if there's a solid lefty, the BBA will scoop them up and find a spot for them. The GBC ends up with the leftovers, which are a bunch of righties that couldn't find jobs.

It's true though. Lefty starter that couldn't hack it? He'll end up in a bullpen somewhere. Those guys are valuable.

[Bob Breum]

When you live in Charm City's world, i.e., the Atlantic Division, you better have a plan against southpaws. Their rotation is always heavily populated with lefties. Currently, four of their five starters are left-handed. Rockville runs out three southpaws in their rotation.

I'm a huge fan of platooning. This season is an outlier, because two of my left-handed hitters are hitting better against left-handed pitching than right-handers, albeit small sample size. Historically, it's rare for me to start left-handed hitters against left-handed starters. So far this season, we are 14-5 against left-handed starting pitching. That's not sustainable, but it does reflect the care that I put into preparing for Charm City. Against right-handed starting pitching, we roll out four left-handed hitters and three switch hitters, with only our two right-handed sluggers Wilkinson and Allen in the lineup.

[Bob Breum]

That also got me wondering about the GBC—specifically because I recall an issue a few seasons back where there were essentially no LHP in the league (maybe 5% of PA saw a lefthanded pitcher, as I recall).

That was when we were running London. I noticed it and brought it to everyone's attention. I made every effort to load up on left-handed batters and write off the few games we would play against southpaws.

[Bob Breum]

Bottom line, today the BBA sees 30% of plate appearances are being covered by LHP.

This is in line with the MLB IRL. LH pitchers account for 27.3% of plate appearances.

This is an interesting article from FanGraphs that addresses platoon advantage from both the batter's and pitcher's standpoints.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/are-you-a-s ... e-too-bad/

[RonCo]

Here is a quick and dirty cut at calculating the platoon advantages and disadvantages in the BBA as of May 23 of this year...

BAVG	LHP	RHP		OBP	LHP	RHP		SLG	LHP	RHP		OPS	LHP	RHP
LHB	.248	.264		LHB	.306	.329		LHB	.387	.442		LHB	.693	.770
RHB	.259	.257		RHB	.324	.315		RHB	.427	.409		RHB	.752	.724
SHB	.266	.259		SHB	.322	.320		SHB	.404	.405		SHB	.726	.726

[RonCo]

As expected, the platoon advantage means that you ALWAYS will choose to send a LHP against a LHB. And as a LHB, you ALWAYS want to face RHP.

A lot of people seem to think that the platoon advantage is a fairly static thing, but it is not. The platoon advantage a LHB gets is considerably higher than the platoon advantage of a RHB. But if you have a LHB who cannot hit LHP, that player pretty much has to have a platoon buddy, preferably a "lefty masher."

[RonCo]

I'll note that SHB in OOTP seem to tend toward being a little better than in the MLB, but I'm not sure that's really right.

[RonCo]

As an OOTP general manager, when you can find a LHB who can actually hit LH Pitching, that player is worth his weight in Fresca, or whatever your drink of choice.

[BaseClogger]

I think the switch hitters being more effective against LHP is a product of our LHP being weaker on average (overall ratings) than our RHP. Especially against opposite hand hitting. Lots of LOOGYs.

[Bob Breum]

I always make a point of checking switch hitters to see if they have a platoon issue. My anecdotal experience is that many switch hitters favor one side or the other. Furthermore, it usually seems to be hitting from the left side.

I looked at the current BBA universe and found 458 switch hitters. I summed CON+GAP+POW+EYE for each hitter, relative to each hand. Then I calculated the difference between hitting vRHP and hitting vLHP, where a positive result favors hitting vRHP. Here is what I found:

Platoon Factor (Positive prefers to hit vRHP)

>2	>1	>0	0	<0	<-1	<-2
24	96	129	278	51	9	2
5%	21%	28%	61%	11%	2%	0%

My anecdotal experience is confirmed. While 61% of switch hitters are agnostic regarding pitcher hand, 28% of them are better at hitting RHP, while only 11% favor hitting LHP. Those who prefer RHP are much more likely to have a relatively heavy platoon factor as compared to those who favor hitting LHP.

The most extreme platoon factors among switch hitters belong to these guys:

Name	ΔBA	ΔCON	ΔGAP	ΔPOW	ΔEYE	ΔK	ΔSUM
Resurrection Santos III	2	2	2	2	1	1	7
Shane Holmes	0	0	1	2	3	0	6
Benjamin Zimmerman	1	1	1	1	3	0	6
Alfredo Pereira	0	1	1	1	3	1	6
Sammy McNeill	1	2	2	1	1	2	6
Kata Ishibashi	0	1	1	1	2	0	5
Milojica Kraljevic	1	1	2	1	1	1	5
Mauro González	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
Jubair Nazim	0	1	1	1	1	0	4
Gilberto Ortíz	1	1	2	0	1	0	4

[ae37jr]

I feel like the league is less splitzy than it's ever been. At least while I have been around. Back in the mud 20's through early 40's I'd platoon at almost every position. There were hundreds of players that were drastically better against lefties or righties. Maybe it's the new ratings masking it better(which is a good thing IMO), but it seems harder to find true platoon players now.

[RonCo]

Maybe it's a little smaller gap, but I think the new rating scheme is certainly masking it more. The numbers above show that the gap is still pretty large in practice.

[RonCo]

My anecdotal experience is confirmed. While 61% of switch hitters are agnostic regarding pitcher hand, 28% of them are better at hitting RHP, while only 11% favor hitting LHP. Those who prefer RHP are much more likely to have a relatively heavy platoon factor as compared to those who favor hitting LHP.

The most extreme platoon factors among switch hitters belong to these guys:

Name	ΔBA	ΔCON	ΔGAP	ΔPOW	ΔEYE	ΔK	ΔSUM
Resurrection Santos III	2	2	2	2	1	1	7
Shane Holmes	0	0	1	2	3	0	6
Benjamin Zimmerman	1	1	1	1	3	0	6
Alfredo Pereira	0	1	1	1	3	1	6
Sammy McNeill	1	2	2	1	1	2	6
Kata Ishibashi	0	1	1	1	2	0	5
Milojica Kraljevic	1	1	2	1	1	1	5
Mauro González	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
Jubair Nazim	0	1	1	1	1	0	4
Gilberto Ortíz	1	1	2	0	1	0	4

Right. Ishibashi is for all purposes, a LHB.

I assume you're noting that the splits you're seeing are all created only when a split crosses a 1-10 bar. Those guys who have no delta almost certainly have measurable splits in their performance that you won't see unless you're looking at stat lines.

[Lane]

I feel like the league is less splitzy than it's ever been. At least while I have been around. Back in the mud 20's through early 40's I'd platoon at almost every position. There were hundreds of players that were drastically better against lefties or righties. Maybe it's the new ratings masking it better(which is a good thing IMO), but it seems harder to find true platoon players now.

without doing any research, this feels right to me

[Bob Breum]

As an OOTP general manager, when you can find a LHB who can actually hit LH Pitching, that player is worth his weight in Fresca, or whatever your drink of choice.

This inspired me to find out who these guys are. This is a list of 50+ potential hitters who have identical ratings against either hand. The 20 overall guys may not have revealed their true colors yet so don't bet the farm on them.

I've got one of these guys (Roosevelt Davis) and I traded away another (Leonardo Rodriguez).

Name	POS	OVR	POT
Christos Samios	1B	20	80
Lau-po Chou	SS	20	80
Kenny Peterson	RF	20	80
George Stickler	RF	40	80
Ramón Rodríguez	LF	65	70
Víctor Rivera	CF	20	70
Luigi Canavan	1B	65	65
William Coleman	1B	35	65
Dave Matthes	LF	50	65
Mike Hickey	1B	20	60
Czar Mamatulin	1B	60	60
Guo-feng Rao	3B	20	60
Al Schumann	LF	40	60
Roosevelt Davis	RF	50	60
Jung-sang Kun	RF	20	60
Brando Bettiza	C	20	55
Awad bin Muta	C	20	55
Bradley Russel	C	40	55
José Cardoza	1B	45	55
De-shi Kuo	1B	55	55
Paul Long	1B	40	55
Stephen Skandalis	1B	20	55
Abdul-Muta'al bin Essam	SS	20	55
Roberto Gabriel	LF	55	55
Hanna Hamal	LF	20	55
Bartolo McFadden	LF	50	55
Zhao-hui Chen	CF	20	55
B.J. Jensen	RF	20	55
Amin Hisham	1B	20	50
Hamdan Nuh	1B	45	50
Leonardo Rodríguez	1B	50	50
Kardal bin Zakiy	2B	20	50
Juan Silva	2B	50	50
Alik Germashev	SS	20	50
JABBER BHATTI	LF	20	50
Benedict Daniel	LF	50	50
Vicente Martínez	LF	25	50
Boguljub Pograjac	LF	20	50
Ricardo Santos	LF	20	50
Abhijana Swamy	LF	35	50
Tung-chi Lei	CF	20	50
Sabeer bin Sa'id	RF	20	50
Rodrigo Cabrera	RF	45	50
Germán Mercado	RF	20	50
Stephen Schmidt	RF	40	50