Collette Calls: Baseball Loves Lefties

You know who doesn't love lefties? Most left-handed hitters. In this day and age of specialization and platoon advantages, we often see someone with moderate to extreme platoon splits taken out of the lineup against a starting pitcher and always lifted for a pinch-hitter late in a game. As baseball fans, it makes sense because there are some players where even inserting a pinch-hitter with the statistical pinch-hitter penalty is a better play than leaving the original hitter in the lineup. As fantasy baseball fans, this sucks because it takes away plate appearances from our players and cuts into their offensive production.

David Ortiz is never getting lifted for a pinch-hitter, but there are plenty of other batters that are frequently told to take a seat when a southpaw comes out on the mound. Yet, there may be some good news on that front in 2015.

Last season, 26.9% of the pitches thrown in baseball were done so by a left-handed pitcher. While those numbers aren't disaggregated by pitcher role, it is worth noting that percentage is the second-lowest percentage in recent years.

The table above shows that the total pitches by lefties is a bit cyclical, but it is in a downward trend over the past three seasons. The good news is that some of our extreme split lefties may get a few more plate appearances this season. Additionally, those batters who do play full time but have their struggles against lefties cut into their overall success could see a bit of a bump. The bad news - all divisions are not created equally and the unbalanced schedules will come into play in that regard. First, let's identify the extreme splits lefty batters.
The table below shows numbers against left-handed starting pitchers since most of these types of batters are still going to be lifted in the later innings. These stats are for active players over the past six seasons via Baseball-Reference:

Nobody has had more of a platoon split vs LH starters than Tampa Bay's new DH/emergency catcher John Jaso. Corey Dickerson, one of last season's biggest surprises, is right on his heels. Names that we would expect to see on this list such as Matt Joyce, Matt Adams, and Garrett Jones are not too far behind them. In fact, there are several big-name fantasy players on that list with noticeable splits, even in larger sample sizes such as Jason Heyward, Shin-Soo Choo and even Robinson Cano. Overall, the names on this list should not surprise you as it shows you why some of them are benched while others have issues with their overall batting average being dragged down by overexposure to left-handed pitching.

The fortunes of both parties could change in 2015 because a quick look around the projected starting pitchers at RosterResource shows an overall scarcity of left-handed pitching. League-wide, there are 38 projected left-handed starting pitchers for opening day rosters. Last season, there were 49 lefties that started at least 10 games last season. Perhaps we could have a fourth-consecutive season of lefty scarcity, which may help the batters on this list do a little better while limiting the plate appearances for the guys on the short side of these platoon situations. That said, that will vary by division.

The table below shows the number of projected starters within each division, keeping in mind a team plays nearly half of its schedule within their division.

You will notice that a heavy concentration of the lefty starters are out west, in both divisions. With every team in the AL West having multiple lefties, it helps cut down on the noise that is coming out about Matt Joyce playing every day as he has never hit lefties with any consistency. It could mean Robinson Cano's batting average is held down a bit because of exposure to multiple lefties, and the rebound season for Shin-Soo Choo should be tempered as he has historically struggled to hit lefties.

Conversely, there is little left-handed starting pitching in either of the eastern divisions. If we look at Atlanta, this helps A.J. Pierzynski fight off father time but hurts Jonny Gomes who has done most of his damage against southpaws. Ryan Howard, assuming he stays put, won't have to face too many lefty starting pitchers within the division. In the AL East, this could allow for more plate appearances for players such as Garrett Jones, Kevin Kiermaier and David DeJesus (assuming he isn't traded out of the division in the coming weeks).