The Platoon Advantage

Earlier today, Hudson and I recorded our 17th edition of Hardballchat Radio. We were joined by Vince Gennaro. Vince is the president of SABR and the author of Diamond Dollars. He is a consultant for a number of teams and appears regularly on Clubhouse Confidential with Brian Kenny. A few weeks ago he talked about something he called the platoon advantage. In essence, he said you could acquire a marginal player that could do what a regular could do 70 percent of the time if he is a traditional left-handed hitter. He used the example of a Laynce Nix (now with the Phillies) in comparison with Andre Ethier. Ethier is an 800+ OPS guy and will likely join the 10+ million per season crowd when he is eligible for free agency. Nix is barely a million dollar player, but the value is remarkably similar when you look at what they do to right-handed pitchers. The platoon advantage is something managers have known about for years. However, it is not something general managers have taken advantage...