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This is my first season doing daily Fantasy for baseball, and it's been a learning experience to be sure. Baseball is a game with so much variation from game to game, that it can often feel like everything you do is entirely random; that's how I felt coming into the season.
However, the more I play, the more tricks I pick up. I've found some success lately -- though it remains hit or miss -- thanks to an increased reliance on platoon splits. I think this is one of the best ways to wring out value everyday, especially when it comes to lower-end players.
And especially when it comes to players who crush left-handed pitching. Left-handed batters with major platoon issues are way more common than their right-handed counterparts, but also probably less useful for daily Fantasy purposes. Their struggles agaisnt lefties will be largely wiped out of their overall line if they hit right-handed pitchers well enough, since RHP tend to take up such a dominant share of their overall appearances. However, players who mash lefties will tend to stand out a bit less. You'll be paying for their overall production, with the potential for so much more.
On Wednesday's Fantasy Baseball Today podcast, I called Buster Posey a must-start player against Dodgers starter Brett Anderson, a lefty who is enjoying a fine start to the season. Now, that isn't going out on a particularly flimsy limb, since Posey is a tremendous hitter against pitchers of all stripes, as he showed by clubbing a home run off right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia to win the game for the Giants. However, he has especially thrived against left-handed pitchers in his career, and he went 2 for 3 against Anderson with a double, a solid start.
Posey has averaged .864 FanDuel points per plate appearance against left-handed pitchers in his career, comparable to what Michael Brantley is averaging this season overall. Against right-handed pitchers, Posey is average .655 FanDuel points per plate appearances, or right around where Steven Souza is at for the season. We can see what kind of value Posey's platoon splits can provide by looking at the prices of these players; Posey was $3,700 last night, while Souza was $3,300 and Brantley was $4,700.
Even while understanding that pricing in daily Fantasy is based more on ownership than production, we can still see that there was value to be gained by targeting Posey against a left-handed pitcher.
Posey isn't the only player worth keeping in mind here. In fact, over the last three seasons, Posey's OPS against LHP is just .034 higher than his overall mark, the 79th-highest in baseball among players with at least 200 plate appearances against LHP. And, as the highest-priced catcher on most nights, it's not like he's a huge value play even against lefties.
So, who might provide the most value with a southpaw on the mound for daily Fantasy? I decided to look up the players who had the biggest platoon advantage against LHP since 2013, which produced the following results:
| Rk | Player | G | OPS vs. LHP | Total OPS | Difference | BAbip |
| 1 | Chris Johnson | 128 | .958 | .729 | .229 | .472 |
| 2 | David Wright | 132 | 1.012 | .791 | .221 | .386 |
| 3 | Jordy Mercer | 114 | .908 | .689 | .219 | .36 |
| 4 | Josh Donaldson | 170 | 1.050 | .848 | .202 | .312 |
| 5 | Rajai Davis | 134 | .912 | .715 | .197 | .391 |
| 6 | Martin Prado | 134 | .912 | .730 | .182 | .325 |
| 7 | Wilin Rosario | 118 | .955 | .777 | .178 | .338 |
| 8 | Derek Norris | 160 | .944 | .768 | .176 | .375 |
| 9 | Mark Trumbo | 127 | .920 | .745 | .175 | .294 |
| 10 | Danny Valencia | 112 | .934 | .759 | .175 | .401 |
| 11 | Starling Marte | 107 | .981 | .806 | .175 | .468 |
| 12 | Carlos Ruiz | 95 | .856 | .698 | .158 | .316 |
| 13 | David Freese | 117 | .862 | .710 | .152 | .325 |
| 14 | Alex Rios | 118 | .887 | .737 | .15 | .349 |
| 15 | Aramis Ramirez | 94 | .927 | .780 | .147 | .306 |
| 16 | Jeff Baker | 125 | .939 | .794 | .145 | .387 |
| 17 | Matt Wieters | 86 | .864 | .726 | .138 | .295 |
| 18 | Ichiro Suzuki | 138 | .787 | .652 | .135 | .352 |
| 19 | Cody Ross | 103 | .817 | .682 | .135 | .347 |
| 20 | Chris Iannetta | 141 | .852 | .720 | .132 | .298 |
As you'll see, a lot of these players aren't even everyday options anymore. That's what happens when you can't really handle 70 percent of the pitchers you could potentially face.Cody Ross isn't even on a roster anymore! But that doesn't mean there isn't anything to take out of this.
For example, Trumbo is on fire against lefties this season, hitting .370 with three home runs and just three strikeouts in 31 plate appearances against them. That has clearly been factored into his price, which is all the way up to $3,900; he can be worth that and more when a southpaw is on the mound, but you should probably stay away otherwise.
Donaldson, on the other hand, is certainly playable against RHP, with an .811 OPS against them this season. However, he has also continued to absolutely demolish lefties, to the tune of a 1.298 OPS. Even if that isn't remotely sustainable, Donaldson is probably close to a must-play option whenever the Blue Jays face a lefty.
Some other interesting names that didn't quite crack the top-20 are Hanley Ramirez (1.021 OPS vs. LHP), Evan Longoria (.907), Giancarlo Stanton (1.019), Brian Dozier (.875), Desmond Jennings (.844) and Xander Bogaerts (.765). I've personally had some success this season stacking Dozier and teammate Trevor Plouffe (.837 career vs. LHP), in addition to the Reds infield duo of Todd Frazier (.824) and Zack Cozart (.719, 78 points higher than vs. RHP).
Obviously, this isn't applicable against every left-handed pitcher. Just because Jordy Mercer does well against left-handed pitchers generally doesn't mean you need to have him in your lineup against Cole Hamels.
However, there is value to be found out there, and that's all daily Fantasy is about. Any edge you can get counts.
