RESEARCH: Which hitters get platooned

Since the 1800’s, teams have been platooning opposite-handed batters compared the pitcher to gain a production advantage. It’s easier for hitters to see and hit a ball that isn’t initially coming directly at their head. If a hitter happens to be put in a platoon, his fantasy value plummets from the lost plate appearances. Today, I’m going to create a talent baseline to determine if a hitter can get platooned by examining historical examples. [Note: For this analysis, I’m using OPS for the platoon for one simple reason, it's the platoon value used in our Baseball Forecaster. By using OPS, no data conversions needed to be done using this method.]

The extreme platoon advantages are isolated to just a few hitters but it occurs league-wide....

Almost!

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