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Jon Anderson explores notable splits for hitters and pitchers based on handedness to help fantasy baseball managers make smart add/drop and lineup decisions for DFS and redraft.
We talk a lot in fantasy baseball about splits data, and for good reason. Some hitters are completely different players when facing a left-handed pitcher as compared to when they're facing a right-hander. Some of the differences you see in the data are huge. This is also true with pitchers, as some guys can be just completely dominant against a hitter of the same handedness but downright bad in the opposite situation.
This analysis is mainly useful for daily lineup setting situations, namely DFS contests or daily roster lock leagues. You probably aren't often going to make a start-or-sit decision based on handedness in a weekly lineup lock (although it's not out of the realm of possibility that you might).
It gets very tedious to go player-by-player and pull up their splits page on whatever site it may be, so I wanted to just publish all of the data here for you. For every hitter and pitcher that has seen 100 or more plate appearances in each split situation, I've pulled together their numbers to publish. Let's get to the results.
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Hitters
If you want to just see one of the splits, you can search "vs. R" or "vs. L" in the search box and then sort the results. You can also search player names and sort any column you want.
Much better vs. LHP
Andrew McCutchen (.645 SLG vs. LHP, .356 vs. RHP), Salvador Perez (.720, .433), Andrew Vaughn (.644, .374), Pete Alonso (.663, .432), Alec Bohm (.490, .291), Trea Turner (.663, .470), Jorge Soler (.516, .327), Austin Hays (.544, 358)
Much better vs. RHP
Jesse Winker (.635 SLG vs. RHP, .253 vs. LHP, Austin Meadows (.572, .286), Joey Votto (.654, .330), Alex Verdugo (.515, .232), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.712, .449), Jared Walsh (.603, .352), Brandon Lowe (.536, .310), Bryce Harper (.623, .408), Rafael Devers (.639, .465)
Sneaky Good Splits
Chris Taylor vs. LHP: The Dodgers utility man has a 15.5% Brl% and a .610 SLG against southpaws. I would imagine the Dodgers find a way to get his bat into the lineup in these spots even with Trea Turner joining the team.
Andrew Vaughn vs. LHP: He has just reached 100 plate appearances against lefties, and he sits currently with a 17.2% Brl% and a .644 SLG with a low 23% strikeout rate. The future is bright.
Anthony Rizzo vs. LHP: Rizzo has made tons and tons of contact against lefties with a 9% strikeout rate while maintaining a respectable barrel rate of 10.6%.
Austin Hays vs. LHP: The breakout has still yet to happen for Hays, but he's looked great against lefties this year with a 13.3% strikeout rate to go with his 13% Brl% and .311 batting average.
Brandon Crawford vs. RHP: You've probably noticed by now the season Crawford is having, but he's been murder on righties with a 15.2% Brl% and a low 19.6% K%.
Max Kepler vs. RHP: A disappointing year for Kepler is being turned around recently, and he's been strong against righties with a high 15.2% Brl% and respectable 24% K%. That makes his .211 batting average look like a mirage that should be changing for the better soon.
You can flip through the data above to find more sneaky names to consider using in the future.
Pitchers
Much Better vs. RHB
Cristian Javier (38% K% vs. RHB, 23% vs. LHB), Zac Gallen (34%, 21%), Freddy Peralta (42%, 29%), Pablo Lopez (34%, 21%), Andrew Heaney (31%, 20%), Shohei Ohtani (36%, 25%), James Kaprielian (32%, 21%)
Much Better vs. LHB
Frankie Montas (33% K% vs. LHB, 20% vs. RHB), Sean Manaea (36%, 24%), Gerrit Cole (39%, 30%), Steven Matz (29%, 21%), Yusei Kikuchi (33%, 25%), Sonny Gray (33%, 25%).
Sneaky Good Splits
Lance McCullers Jr. vs. RHB: Righties have hit just .180 with a 31% strikeout rate against McCullers, homering just four times in 250 plate appearances.
Adbert Alzolay vs. RHB: Righties are slugging just .279 against Alzolay and striking out 29% of the time.
Luis Garcia vs. RHB: A .310 slugging and a 30% strikeout rate is all righties have been able to muster against the Astros righty. That sets you up very nicely when the majority of the league's hitters are right-handed.
Go ahead and flip through the rest of the data and feel free to tweet me with what you find! Thanks for reading!
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