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April 22, 2014The lefty-heavy Cleveland Indians lineup may be a bit frustration to watch through the first 19 games of the season, but the team is being commended for the method behind the madness. The latest comes from a FanGraphs piece titled “Lineup Genius in Cleveland“:
One thing seems certain: Some very smart people are working for Team Cleveland. In addition to their focus on those intangible things we’ve had such a hard time measuring — like manager influence and chemistry — the club has also made some smart decisions about the roster’s composition. […]
Over the course of a 162-game season, there’s an inherent advantage to fielding a lefty-leaning lineup. Roughly 70% of pitchers are right-handed, so we’re talking about a lot of platoon advantage. Of course, if 70% are right-handed, then 30% are left-handed. That can be a problem, which is where Raburn and the switch-hitters enter the equation.
The FanGraphs piece goes on to discuss the composition of the AL Central specifically, pointing out that the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins both have right-handed heavy pitching staffs. If this wasn’t enough, they take into account the confines of Progressive Field, stating that “The Jake” has a 105 HR park factor for left-handed batters—lefties hit five more home runs in Cleveland than in a neutral park. This contrasts to an 89 HR park factor for righties. Progressive Field reduces righty home runs by 11 percent. Add it all up and a generic left-handed bat is 16 percent more likely to put a ball on the other side of the fence than your average right-handed hitter.
The power of platoons has already been well documented. Just remember all of these other items next time you see all of those south paws in the Tribe’s lineup.
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(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
14 Comments
This is further evidence that while sometimes Francona’s lineups can make you scratch your head, he clearly has a reason behind what he’s doing.
The Indians have been left handed hitting dominant for a very long time I don’t think it’s by design more then happenstance. More importantly they have a number of switch-hitters (Santana, Swisher and Cabrera) which of course makes a huge difference.
Sorry fangraphs not much of a story here.
A few things:
Indians 4.26runs/game ranks #12 in MLB (#7 in AL) despite many of our expected best hitters struggling. It is encouraging that we are average to this point IMO.
Intelligent lineups need intelligent hitters:
Indians #3 in MLB at BB%
Indians #6 in MLB at SO%
And intelligent baserunning:
#8 in Spd + #10 in UBR (you need both to see that you are utilizing your baserunning to it’s fullest IMO).
I really think that we’ll end the season as a top5 or so offense (just like last year).
I can all but assure you that the team that had the platoon advantage more than anyone else in 2013 and tries to draw information out of every last detail they can get their hands on is doing nothing by happenstance.
You platoon because you have to not because you want to if they had a guy who could man a position 162 games they would do so!
Historically, that’s not quite accurate. Having position players play 140+ games is a creation of the 12 man pitching staffs. With less room to fill out the bench, you have less options to platoon. Teams always have liked to have the platoon option, they’ve just decided to obtain it with from the guy on the mound now more often than with the guy at the plate.
The Indians have been able to design a roster to capture it at both spots.
Uh ok thanks for the history lesson if you say so champ. Now try and capture one of these and then we’ll talk:
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/RED_SOX_WS2004_RINGS(3).jpg
Be in a big market and thus have the ability to outspend your mistakes.
And of course, the Red Sox were 7th in obtaining the platoon advantage at the plate last year, they seem to find value in it.
They also sell more seats and have better fan support but boo-hoo, big market win one Steve, just one!
Red Sox also had plenty of injuries a year ago they didn’t platoon by choice. They’ll probably be even higher this year with no Drew, no Victorino and no Ellsbury.
Have a nice day!
I wonder what the effects of a rich and large population are on the ability to sell seats.
I’ve only been consistently reading this site for a little while, but why does it seem like you leave a comment on EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE if you’re a Boston fan? Is Cleveland your 2nd team or something? If not then it really is pretty sad you’re trolling on a Cleveland based site.
It’s only April, which means it’s still winter in Cleveland. Offense forgot that we need hats for bats to keep bats warm to start the season.
Jobu needs a refill
Don’t mind Shammy. He lived in Boston and now is in Cleveland. He doesn’t like to admit it but he lives and dies with our teams as much as the rest of us.