The Best Side
Posted by birtelcom on July 13, 2009
One of the many new items one can study on the extraordinary baseball-reference.com after its makeover this year (a deep site, getting ever deeper) is team platoon advantage. That is, one can see what percentage of each team’s plate appearances, by its hitters, are taken from the advantageous side of the plate (i.e., the hitter batting left-handed against right-handed pitchers or batting right-handed when a lefty is on the mound).
With Beltran, Reyes and Castillo all switch-hitters, and thus holding this ”platoon advantage” 100% of the time, the Mets as a team have been consistently high up in the ”platoon advantage” ranks for four years running now. Here are the top three teams in % of PAs with the platoon advantage for 2009 to date, and then for the past three full seasons. Note that the major league average this season has been 55%, and has been 54% each of the past three full seasons. The lowest percentage each season by any team has been from 40% to 43%
Top Platoon Advantage Percentages — 2009
Yanks 70%
Mets 65%
Angels 63%
Top Platoon Advantage Percentages — 2008
Mets 71%
Rays 66%
Giants 65%
Top Platoon Advantage Percentages — 2007
Giants 67%
Yanks/Mets 64%
Top Platoon Advantage Percentages — 2006
Diamondbacks 65%
Mets 64%
Phils/Yanks 63%
