Mains: Have growing pitching staffs destroyed platooning?
From SABR member Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus on March 1, 2018:
I would’ve guessed that the platoon advantage peaked around the beginning of the divisional-play era, with smaller pitching staffs. The 1974 A’s, for example, used only 11 pitchers all year, with only five pitchers starting more than five games. That leaves a lot of room for batters on the roster, so there should’ve been a lot of platoon advantages.
I also expected that with larger bullpens and thinner benches, managers could call on more LOOGYs and ROOGYs to get lefty-on-lefty and righty-on-righty matchups that their opponents couldn’t counter, given how few hitters they have in reserve. But I was only partly right.
This chart displays the percentage of all plate appearances in which the batter had a platoon advantage.
Read the full article here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/38158/flu-like-symptoms-growing-pitching-staffs-destroyed-platooning/
Originally published: March 1, 2018. Last Updated: March 1, 2018.